Warner Bros. Games, the interactive studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, is restructuring around its core IP franchises.
The studio says that going forward it will focus on Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, DC, and Mortal Kombat, promoting multiple internal studio heads as part of the restructure.
Warner Bros. Games Montréal studio head Yves Lachance will serve as senior vp, with oversight of the Harry Potter and Game of Thrones franchises, with NetherRealm Studio head Shaun Himmerick also becoming a senior vp, with oversight of DC and Mortal Kombat. Warner Bros. Games New York studio head Steven Flenory has been promoted to senior vp, central tech & services, overseeing game and publishing technology, customer service, quality assurance and user research.
All three will report to JB Perrette, CEO of global streaming & games for Warner Bros. Discovery.
“Our company is home to some of the biggest franchises in the world, and we are optimizing our team structure to develop long-term franchise roadmaps to delight players and fans of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC games,” Perrette said. “We are very fortunate to have a strong stable of development and technology talent, and Yves, Shaun and Steven are respected leaders with excellent track records in their areas of expertise. I’m looking forward to working closely with them and the team as we work to make the best games possible for our key franchises.”
The restructuring comes as WBD is planning to split itself in two, with streaming and studios in one company led by David Zaslav (this company is expected to include the video game studio), and its global linear TV networks in another company, to be led by Gunnar Weidenfels.
Zaslav has also made focusing on core franchises a priority at the Warner Bros. film and TV studios.
The game studio has had success with IP-based games, most notably with 2023’s Hogwarts Legacy. Mortal Kombat is also an original piece of IP that began with a game, but has since expanded to film. a Game of Thrones game, Kingsroad, was released last month.
