Warner Bros. Discovery President of International Streaming and Video games, J.B. Perrette, has hinted that Hogwarts Legacy 2 could also be a live-service recreation. The corporate can be rising its concentrate on live-service, cell, and free-to-play video games, and its massively profitable IP is among the essential titles sitting in that highlight.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 ought to keep away from being a “one-and-done” recreation
At yesterday’s Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom Conference, Perette described at this time’s video games trade as “risky.” Warner Bros. Discovery has historically centered on the AAA console-based market. Whereas this has labored for them beforehand with video games like Hogwarts Legacy, which turned 2023’s best-selling recreation worldwide, different video games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League have been “not as robust.”
Now the corporate is taking a look at a “rather more holistic strategy” with an elevated concentrate on reside service video games. One instance led to hints that Hogwarts Legacy 2 could not have the identical format as its predecessor:
Somewhat than simply launching a one-and-done console recreation, how can we develop a recreation round, for instance, Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that could be a live-service the place individuals can reside and work and construct and play in that world on an ongoing foundation?
There may be already Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, a aggressive multiplayer recreation in improvement to assist with that plan. Nevertheless, Harry Potter isn’t the one gaming franchise to be a part of this strategy. Warner Bros. already has wishes for Mortal Kombat, Recreation of Thrones, and the DC world like Batman to take an identical route into reside service, in addition to in the direction of the cell and multi-platform free-to-play house.
This new route is anticipated to provide the corporate “a significantly better and extra constant settled income,” however Warner Bros. gained’t be utterly transferring away from the one-and-done console video games altogether. The writer has already mentioned that the upcoming Surprise Girl recreation won’t be a live-service title.
The longer term begins with some cell free-to-play video games that can be launching later this 12 months, though there weren’t any specifics on these video games. Regardless, Warner Bros. is aware of that it is a multi-year plan that it hopes will present “significant progress over the course of the following couple of years” and the outcomes gained’t be immediate.