Warner Bros. Games holds little importance for Netflix

The $82.7 Billion deal that is bringing the giant Warner Bros. Discovery into the hands of the streaming platform Netflix has, in record time, captured the attention of the entire industry, primarily cinematic but not exclusively.

Indeed, as we have already reported, many have expressed concern about the future of several brands owned by WB., including Harry Potter, DC Comics, and The Lord of the Rings, and whether these will still reach cinemas or the home-video market. Certainly, not a few are looking with apprehension at the Gaming division of the home of Batman Arkham.

For the latter, we unfortunately have disheartening news: apparently, WB.'s Gaming division was not even evaluated when the companies sat down to determine the acquisition figures. Simply put, for Netflix, it is a minor and secondary element compared to the cinematic portfolio.

Netflix: WB. Games is not in the grand scheme

"While they've certainly done a lot of great work in the gaming environment – declares Gregory Peters, co-CEO of Netflix, during a call with shareholders reported by Pocket Gamer – we don't attribute any value to it immediately because it's relatively minor compared to the grand scheme of things. We're obviously very excited because some of the properties they've built have done very well – Hogwarts is a great example – and we think we can incorporate them into our offering. There are great studios and great people working there, so we think there's definitely an opportunity. But we want to be clear: we didn't include it in our deal model."

The fate of WB. Games is therefore shrouded in a rather thick and heavy veil of uncertainty: we don't even know if projects under development will see the light in the immediate future, nor whether the company's policy might drastically shift towards a different market, especially considering that Netflix seems to considerably prefer the Mobile market. All we can do is wait...