Larian Studios has announced the opening of its seventh studio.
09.05.2024 - 20:35 / videogameschronicle.com / David Zaslav / Chris Scullion / Gunnar Wiedenfels / Rocksteady Studios / Axel Rydby
The CEO and president of Warner Bros Discovery has singled out Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as the reason for underwhelming Q1 results for its entire Studios division.
During a financial presentation, David Zaslav said the Studios division – which includes Warner Bros Pictures, DC, Warner Bros Television Group, Warner Bros Games and New Line Cinema – saw a decrease in revenues compared to the previous year.
Zaslav said this was mainly down to the difference between the successful release of Hogwarts Legacy last year and the “disappointing” release of the Suicide Squad game.
“Warner Bros Discovery’s great storytelling IP, including Hary Potter, Lord of the Rings, Superman and many other parts of the DC Universe are largely underused,” Zaslav said.
“We are hard at work fixing that. It’s a core value and a key advantage for us. We have the characters and the stories people love and yearn for everywhere in the world, in every language.
“Unfortunately, the studio’s Q1 financials were overshadowed by the tough [comparison] at Games, following the great performance of Hogwarts Legacy last year, and the disappointing release of Suicide Squad in Q1 in our gaming group.”
Zaslav’s comments were later echoed by Warner Bros Discovery CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels, who said the difference between both games’ releases had led to “a $200 million impact to EBIDTA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation] during the first quarter”.
The game’s release was less than ideal, with Wiedenfels saying in February’s financial briefing that its sales had “fallen short” of the company’s expectations.
“This year, Suicide Squad, one of our key video game releases in 2024, has fallen short of our expectations since its release earlier in the quarter,” he noted at the time, “setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1.”
As the latest title from the studio behind the celebrated Batman Arkham franchise, Suicide Squad was once one of the industry’s most highly anticipated games, but enthusiasm for it seemingly waned during a protracted development cycle which included some underwhelming pre-release showings and a backlash to its live service elements.
The game released to a mixed critical reception, earning it scores of 60 (consoles) and 63 (PC) on review aggregation site Metacritic, while its launch was negatively impacted by server issues and an auto-completion bug.
Larian Studios has announced the opening of its seventh studio.
Take-Two‘s updated release slate of upcoming games, published on Thursday, includes 12 fewer games than the last time it was shown.
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has claimed that the publisher didn’t shut down Private Division studios Roll7 and Intercept Games, despite reports suggesting it planned to.
Warner Bros has announced the release date for its upcoming movie Mortal Kombat 2.
Three of Square Enix‘s most high profile recent releases sold worse than expected, the company’s president has reportedly said.
Square Enix‘s share price has dropped by nearly 16% following its FY2024 financial results on Monday.
Warner Bros has U-turned on a decision to delist indie games previously published by Adult Swim.
Square Enix has confirmed that it has cancelled a number of unannounced game projects because they don’t fit with its new strategy.
Square Enix has published a new medium-term business plan, which includes making its AAA games multiplatform going forward.
WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav said the entertainment firm's Q1 financials took losses.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was already known to be commercially unsuccessful, but it's now facing a truly humbling comparison with last year's Warner Bros. hit, Hogwarts Legacy.
Xbox president Sarah Bond has spoken more about the company’s decision to close four Bethesda studios earlier this week.