Microsoft Is Interested In Buying Warner Bros.’s Gaming Division

[Tsing]

Image: Warner Bros.



Believe it or not, the next Mortal Kombat and Arkham games could be Xbox (and PC) exclusives. According to a pay-walled report from The Information, Microsoft is contemplating the purchase of Warner Bros.’s gaming division, which parent company AT&T may sell to pay off the massive debt it owes from its $109 billion acquisition of Time Warner in 2018.



“Microsoft has expressed interest in acquiring the games division of Warner Bros., the publisher behind popular game franchises based on Batman, Harry Potter and other characters, according to two people familiar with the situation,” The Information reported in its...

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[Uvilla]

Makes sense as they might get them on the cheap. Also makes sense for att to try for a bidding war.

 

[SeymourGore]

Probably be a good idea for MS to shore up their first party studios and WBIE has some valuable properties. Not sure how I feel about Mortal Kombat potentially going platform exclusive, mind you.

Still, the value of having an exclusive Batman franchise to counter Sony's exclusive Spider-Man franchise can't be understated.

 

[Riccochet]

Making MK an exclusive would be one sure fire way to kill it.

 

[Uvilla]

To be honest i see a ms like company that sucks all the fun out of things and makes them corporate beige.

 

[Eduardo_Domingot]

Probably be a good idea for MS to shore up their first party studios and WBIE has some valuable properties. Not sure how I feel about Mortal Kombat potentially going platform exclusive, mind you.

Still, the value of having an exclusive Batman franchise to counter Sony's exclusive Spider-Man franchise can't be understated.

This, so much this.

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

Sound like MS is trying to get their gaming division moving again. I've read rumors recently that they might be working on another Fable game as well.

 

[Brian_B]

They have been doubling down on studio squisitions in the last couple of years. I guess they finally realized Xbox wasn't going anywhere without some good (and preferably exclusive) content. That, and if they own the studio, they can push the cross-platform Xbox brand across the console and desktop and not have to haggle with publishers over the multi-platform aspect of it.

In the past couple of years:
Obsidian
Double Fine
Compulsion
Ninja Theory
Playground
inXile
Undead Labs

Although, seeing as how a lot of their previous studios were handled (Lionhead, Rare, Bungie, etc), I don't know that I have high hopes for any of this. It was never that MS didn't have good talent - they have owned some great studios with amazing IP. They just seem to have a habit of grinding them into irrelevance once they get them.

 

[Burticus]

I'm sure only great things will come from this acquisition.