Hypothesis had been operating rampant in latest weeks within the leisure trade when phrase broke {that a} deal was shut for Warner Bros. to be bought. The query was which firm could be getting its palms on WB, with many speculating that the frontrunner was Paramount. Nonetheless, within the eleventh hour the winner of this bidding warfare turned out to be Netflix, which bought WB for an eye-watering $82.7 billion. The deal encompasses WB’s streaming platform HBO Max, in addition to both possession or distribution rights of quite a few properties like DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and far, way more.
Whereas which may not appear particularly associated to the world of video video games, in actuality WB is residence to a notable video games catalog due to its improvement wing, Warner Bros. Video games. WB Video games is a part of this total buy, and that would have some sizable impacts on the a number of studios that the corporate owns, together with TT Video games, Rocksteady, NetherRealm, in addition to inner WB Video games studios in New York and San Francisco. It’s plenty of employees, and with studios like Rocksteady delivering large flops like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League just lately, mixed with the state of turmoil that the trade has been in over the previous few years, this deal might imply plenty of layoffs are on the horizon.
Nonetheless, the Netflix deal is much from wrapped up, as numerous regulatory our bodies will grow to be concerned in addition to potential lawsuits, leading to probably many months (if not years) passing earlier than it’s finalized. Given the seemingly by no means ending consolidation and elimination of so-called redundancies throughout the online game trade, this might portend additional losses of jobs at a time when individuals are frankly fed up with the entire churn. We’ll proceed to report on this as we be taught extra.
Supply: Recreation Developer
