WB Games Initiates Recovery After Executive Departures and Project Closures including Suicide Squad and MultiVersus
By Image courtesy of Player First Games/WB Games.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) gaming division has experienced a challenging phase, and this situation is expected to continue for several more years. A recent Bloomberg report reveals that the company has “significant gaps” in its lineup following the departure of division head David Haddad in January and the combined failures of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and MultiVersus.
Two dozen current and former developers speaking to Bloomberg indicated the company was hindered by a lack of direction during Haddad’s leadership, resulting in “years of ineffective trend-chasing and squandered development time.” His inexperience with gaming was evident, as studios reportedly spent months seeking his approval on various matters, from their upcoming game projects to whether they could participate in trade events like E3.
Employees at WB Games Montreal and Monolith Productions elaborated on these sentiments, expressing to Bloomberg that they felt “stuck in limbo” while awaiting answers from Haddad and his team. Former WB Montreal head Martin Carrier noted that games “lost some focus” as “a lot was happening politically” within WBD.
JB Perrette, head of WB’s gaming and streaming division, told Bloomberg that the company aims to become “profitable again” as it seeks a successor to Haddad. However, achieving that desired profitability will require “two to three years” of rebuilding.
The way forward for WB Games
Bloomberg’s report outlines the impact of executive decisions on various WB Games studios.
For Monolith, its Wonder Woman game quietly underwent a soft reboot in early 2024, transforming it from a project centered around the Nemesis system (from the studio’s own Shadow of Mordor) into a more traditional action-adventure title. This project emerged after WB executives canceled a previous project that Monolith had been developing for over three years, with many key personnel—including studio head Kevin Stephens—departing to establish EA’s Cliffhanger Games.
WB Games Montreal was tasked with creating a live-service Batman game soon after Haddad’s arrival in 2016. That initiative ultimately became Gotham Knights, which the team hoped could be revived with a “1.5 version.” That strategy was turned down, and following unsuccessful pitches involving DC characters like Constantine and Flash, WB Montreal was assigned as a support developer on Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad. Recently, the studio laid off nearly 100 developers shortly before that game’s release and is currently assisting with Wonder Woman while pitching a game project based on Game of Thrones.
Regarding Rocksteady, its history with Suicide Squad and the difficulties encountered during its development have been previously documented. According to Bloomberg, the developer is now working on another single-player Batman game described as “years away” from release.
Avalanche Software, creators of Hogwarts Legacy, is currently developing new content for that game as well as a sequel. However, Bloomberg questions whether a sequel can achieve the same level of success as the original did in 2023.
Two developers were notably absent from this report: NetherRealm and Player First. The former recently boasted that Mortal Kombat 1 sold 5 million copies and indicated that new content is on the way. Meanwhile, Player First’s future remains uncertain after it stops MultiVersus support in May.
You can read Bloomberg’s full report here.
About the Author
Contributing Editor, GameDeveloper.com
A native of Kansas City, MO, Justin Carter has contributed to various websites including IGN, Polygon, and SyFy Wire. In addition to Game Developer, his work can also be found at io9 on Gizmodo. Don’t ask him about how much gum he’s had, because the answer is likely to be more than he’s willing to admit.