Warner Bros. Games

History

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

The foundation of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) under Warner Bros. was announced on January 14, 2004, along with the WB Games (Warner Bros. Games) brand, under which WBIE would publish games. Jason Hall, previously of Monolith Productions, was named as its senior vice president. Before this, the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment brand was used by Warner Bros. Consumer Products for licensing purposes since 1995 with the video game tie-in of Batman Forever. The name was initially used as a brand name of WBCP. In 2003, Warner Bros. co-published its first title Looney Tunes: Back in Action as part of a partnership with the Electronic Arts subsidiary EA Distribution, becoming the first title published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In August, Warner Bros. purchased Monolith Productions, becoming its first self-owned game developer.

In 2005, the first game that Monolith developed in conjunction with Warner Bros. was The Matrix Online, which Sega helped co-publish. In July, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment announced the release of its first self-published title, Friends: The One with All the Trivia, for Microsoft Windows and the PlayStation 2, on November 15, 2005. The game would be distributed through Warner Home Video, and would tie-in with the release of the Friends complete series DVD boxset. In October, Warner Bros. created Warner Bros. Home Entertainment and WBIE was transferred as part of it.

In December 2006, WBIE entered in a North American distribution deal with British game publisher Codemasters. Also within that month, Warner Bros. Games invested a 10.3% stake in SCi Entertainment, the owner of Eidos Interactive. The deal also included a licensing deal for Eidos to develop and publish titles based on select DC Comics properties (Comic book Batman and Legion of Super Heroes), Looney Tunes (including Loonatics Unleashed), Hanna-Barbera and The O.C..

In 2007, it implemented a five-year plan, the goal of which was to expand in the video game industry and included the acquisition of studios for internal development and the creation of a studio (WB Games) in the Seattle area that will run all the games published and developed by the company; the first acquisition under this plan was Britain's TT Games that same year, for £100 million. The deal included the publishing division of the company, developers Traveller's Tales and TT Fusion, motion capture studio TT Centroid, and animation studio TT Animation.

Rebrand to Warner Bros. Games

In May 2021, AT&T announced that it was splitting off WarnerMedia for about $43 billion, where it would be merged with Discovery, Inc. As part of this sale, there were rumors that only portions of WBIE would be moved with the bulk of the other WarnerMedia properties, but WBIE would be retained as its previous additional brand, Warner Bros. Games, under the newly merged company named Warner Bros. Discovery. Playdemic was one of the few properties divested from the merger, with it being sold to Electronic Arts for $1.4 billion on September 20, 2021. It was announced on April 7, 2022, that Warner Bros. Games was reorganized with streaming services HBO Max and Discovery+ to form Warner Bros. Discovery Global Streaming & Interactive Entertainment, to be overseen by JB Perrette; WB Games president David Haddad would report directly to Perrette. The merger was completed on April 8.

In July 2024, Warner Bros. Games acquired MultiVersus developer Player First Games.

In July 2024, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), a labor union of which numerous video game voice actors are members, would initiate a labor strike against a number of video publishers, including WB Games, over concerns about lack of A.I. protections for not only video game voice actors, but also the use of A.I to replicate an actor’s voice, or create a digital replica of their likeness.

During the third quarter of 2024, in a financial call, Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav and CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels state that the underperformances of MultiVersus and Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions had added another $100 million to the $200 million writedown to the company's games business in 2024. Warner Bros. Games will now focus more on its four other successful franchises going forward, Zaslav added during the call.

In January 2025, David Haddad announced that in the coming months he would be exiting his role as President after 12 years leading the games division. In February 2025, Warner Bros. Games confirmed the closure of Monolith Productions, Player First Games and WB Games San Diego. By June 2025, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that Warner Bros. Games would be restructured with a focus on the DC Universe, Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, and Game of Thrones, and that the division would be part of the Streaming & Studios company when Warner Bros. Discovery would split in mid-2026. Yves Lachance, of WB Games Montreal, was promoted to oversee the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones titles, while NetherRealm's studio head Shaun Himmerick was promoted to oversee the DC Universe and Mortal Kombat titles.

Merger with Paramount

In October 2026, it was announced that Warner Bros. Games would be merged with Paramount Games Studio into one combined gaming division, supervised by Tony Driscoll, following Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery.

Subsidiaries and divisions

Publishing labels

Portkey Games, which was founded in 2017 as the publishing label for games set within the Wizarding World franchise.

Studios

Avalanche Software in Salt Lake City, Utah, founded in 1995, acquired by The Walt Disney Company in 2005, closed along with the former parent company of the studio, Disney Interactive Studios, in May 2016. Acquired by WBIE in January 2017, which reopened the studio.

NetherRealm Studios in Chicago, founded as Midway Studios Chicago in 1988, acquired in 2009, and renamed in 2010.

Rocksteady Studios in London, founded in 2004 and majority stake acquired in February 2010.

TT Games in Knutsford, England, founded in 2005, acquired November 8, 2007.

Traveller's Tales in Knutsford, England, founded in 1989, reorganized as the main development division of TT Games in 2005.

TT Fusion in Wilmslow, England, founded in 2005 as Embryonic Studios, reorganized as a division of TT Games in 2007.

TT Games Publishing in Bristol, England, founded in 2003 as Giant Interactive Entertainment, reorganized as a division of TT Games in 2005.

TT Odyssey in Brighton, founded in January 2018 as TT Games Brighton, renamed in March 2018.

WB Games Montréal in Montreal, founded in 2010.

WB Games Boston in Needham, Massachusetts, founded in 1994, acquired in 2010.

WB Games New York in Troy, New York, founded as Agora Games in 2005, acquired and renamed in 2017.

WB Games San Francisco in San Francisco, founded in 2013.

Former studios

Snowblind Studios in Kirkland, Washington, founded in 1997, acquired in 2009. Merged into Monolith Productions in 2012.

Surreal Software in Kirkland, Washington, founded in 1995, acquired from Midway Games on July 27, 2009. Merged into Monolith Productions in 2010.

Playdemic in Manchester, England, founded in 2010, acquired on February 8, 2017, sold to Electronic Arts in June 2021.

Monolith Productions in Kirkland, Washington, founded in 1994, acquired in 2004, shut down in February 2025.

Player First Games in Los Angeles, founded in 2019, acquired in July 2024, shut down in February 2025.

WB Games San Diego in San Diego, founded in 2019, shut down in February 2025.

Other assets

Warner Bros. Games owns the assets and IPs of Midway Games, Bally Manufacturing, Williams Electronics and Atari Games.