This might come as a shock to you, so perhaps you should sit down – Warner Bros. Discovery is planning on making a sequel to a videogame that has sold over 24 million units. I know, I know, who could have seen it coming?
Okay, so this isn’t really surprising news. Speaking at at the Bank of America’s 2024 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference, WBD’s Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels addressed the topic of a Hogwarts Legacy follow-up.
The relevant quotes come from Variety, who report that Gunnar said: “Obviously, a successor to ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ is one of the biggest priorities in a couple of years down the road. So there is certainly a significant growth contribution from that [games] business in our strategic outlook here.”
Hogwarts Legacy launched in 2023 to become the year’s best selling game, even beating out The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. A sequel to such a monumentally successful game is obvious, then.
But Warner Bros. Discovery does seem to need all the help it can get. According to Variety, Gunnar described this year’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as a “miss” which is an impressive understatement. According to Warner Bros. Discovery themselves, it lost the company a whopping $200 million.
Despite the financial floppage of Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. Discovery actually intends on doubling-down on live-service games, which the Internet did not take very kindly too. And aside from the outrage of fans, the live-service market is also incredibly dangerous, as the newly released and newly shutdown shooter Concord has discovered.
Suicide Squad developer Rocksteady are currently suffering the ramifications of their game’s failure. New reports suggest they have been hit by layoffs resulting in half their Q&A team losing their jobs. Another report in JUne says many of Rocksteady’s staff are actually working on a new version of Hogwarts Legacy.
Speaking of Harry Potter, Warner Bros. Discovery just launched Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions and is also going to be putting out another remaster of the LEGO Harry Potter games.