WB Games is Shutting Down, but Your Favorite Franchises Are Safe

WB Games is being shut down, but before you start to panic, there is more to the story than the headline suggests. The division is reportedly closing because it no longer needs to exist as a standalone entity. Everything is expected to be folded into Skydance's gaming efforts, which already exist and are aimed at becoming a major pillar of the industry.

This is not the first time the future of WB Games has been up in the air. Over the past seven years, various owners have tried to offload the gaming division. Major gaming outlets and trade publications have covered it, and shareholders have confirmed it as well.

Sales kept failing because buyers wanted studios without the attached franchises.

The problem was that owners were trying to sell development studios like Rocksteady and NetherRealm without including the intellectual property, and they wanted billions for each one. You could buy NetherRealm and get the team behind Injustice and Mortal Kombat, but without those properties you would own very little of value.

More recently, WB Games has been refocusing on building more games in-house, since there is a lot of money to be made. The complication is that Skydance has its own gaming division, and with everything from Paramount to Warner Bros. now under one company, there are two gaming operations sitting side by side.

According to reports, the answer is to shut down WB Games and fold it into the Skydance side, which means new ownership and new decision-makers. It is reasonable to keep an eye on what happens to WB Games. Look at what happened with BioWare after Saudi Arabia took over EA.

EA still has a couple more games coming because of existing licenses, but once those are out, you should not expect another Jedi game or another Iron Man game. Unless a project includes microtransactions, the company doesn't seem to care much.

That said, this does not have to be bad news for WB Games fans.

The new owner is pushing hard to build a big foothold in gaming, which is why all of this is being combined. You don't need to worry about the next Arkham game or new entries in Injustice, Mortal Kombat, and Harry Potter. All of that is still expected to happen.

You might see a bit of a delay on some of these projects. Leadership at WB Games will change, with different people running things and overseeing teams, and budgets will have to be assessed under the new structure. Batman is about as safe as it gets, and that series isn't going anywhere, though something else in the pipeline could end up losing out.

WB Games is not disappearing so much as being absorbed into a larger plan. The name may disappear, but the studios and franchises are expected to carry on under Skydance as part of a larger gaming push. Rocksteady and NetherRealm will keep working on the properties they are tied to, which is the piece previous owners never offered buyers.

For now, treat the news about WB Games as a restructuring, not a collapse. Expect more details on who is leading what once the merger settles, and keep in mind that the developers behind your favorite games are still in place. Whatever comes next, WB Games' story is far from over.