Warner Bros Makes Move Into Game Development

Thanks to Yahoo for reprinting the press release revealing Warner Bros has created a new videogame division, headed by Monolith co-founder Jason Hall, which "will focus on the creation, development, production and distribution of games that will be marketed to consumers under the Warner Bros. Games brand." This represents a change of attitude for Warner Bros, who previously licensed titles such as Harry Potter and The Matrix for external game development, and GameSpot provides some background for the move, noting that new WBIE boss Jason Hall "...was CEO of Monolith Productions, developer of Tron 2.0 and No One Lives Forever 2... There were previous ties between the two companies, since Monolith is currently developing the Matrix MMORPG, The Matrix Online." Update: 01/15 04:22 GMT by S : Game Informer has an interview with Jason Hall about his new position, in which he hints on "...some interesting developments throughout the course of this year... things like the Harry Potter titles."

Comments

Just what we need...

[El]

... a FPS with LOTS of FALLING ANVILS!

Trying again are we...

[DLWormwood]

I believe it was Warner who had ownership of the original Atari that produced the 2600. Just like Mattel did with the Intellivision, Warner divested themselves of Atari when the Great Video Game Crash of '84 occured. Seeing how Mattel is now re-releasing old Mattel Electronics portables, I guess it was only a matter of time before Warner stuck their toes back into the waters...

Glaring Absence

[Babbster]

It's interesting that the cited articles didn't mention two big Warner Brothers-controlled properties: Superman and Batman. Given that both of these comic book icons have been popular over the years, and that superhero videogames should be a natural, these two characters would seem to form a perfect area of focus for a new WB gaming division. This should be of particular interest to Warner given that both characters have been horribly treated by game developers in the near and distant past. Obviously, the entire DC Universe could be fodder, but if Warner could have as their debut game a good Batman and/or Superman title they could make quite a splash.

Then again, considering there are two Superman movies currently in some stage of development (a solo Superman outing and Batman vs. Superman), maybe that is WHY Warner is making this move now. Either or both of those movies could be huge, so why share any of the ancillary profits with an outside game developer?

Reason It's Doomed to Fail

[TechnoPops]

From the Yahoo! article:

WBIE will be responsible for creating, managing and monetizing the Studio's long-term interactive gaming goals and business objectives and leveraging its world-class brands across all current and future platforms (including console, MMPOG, PC-based gaming and wireless applications like N-Gage ).

Need I say more? :P