The Future of WB Gaming Is Up in the Air Following the $43 Billion Merger Between AT&T and Discovery

The world of commerce went into a meltdown after it was revealed that AT&T’s WarnerMedia will merge with Discovery Inc on a massive $43 billion deal. With such a huge business venture, it seems like there will be a lot of shake-ups with the various divisions at both companies. But, what will happen to the video game studios from WB Gaming?

A lot of IPs and media properties will shift from one company to another. But it seems like the gaming department will endure some tough times with a split of the company’s 11 studios.

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WB Gaming to be split following the $43 billion merger

The massive deal between AT&T and Discovery will include the merger of the content divisions of both companies to create a media giant. This will include all the IPs and departments from WarnerMedia such as HBOMax, Warner Bros. Studios, CNN, and many more. Many of these entities will remain at AT&T, but some of them join the standalone company. This will also apply to all the properties of the WB Gaming Division.

WarnmerMedia’s gaming department is called Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment or more commonly known as WBIE. There are currently 11 studios under WBIE such as WB Games, NetherRealm, Rocksteady, TT Games, and many more. A spokesperson for the company revealed to Axios’ Sara Fischer about the status of some of these gaming studios.

“Some of the gaming arm will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company.”

What will happen to games currently in development?

No one knows about the details of the buyout and its implications for all these gaming studios. Fans and industry insiders have no clue about the status of these companies when it’s all said and done. Along with that, these companies could also have employee layoffs, which could be very problematic as well. Other than that, it would be hard to point out the ramifications of the deal, and the future of all the titles that are currently in development at these studios.

Some of these studios already have confirmed releases for 2021-2022. Companies such as WB Games Montreal and Rocksteady Studios have releases for 2022 with Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, respectively. But the titles that are currently in the early stages of development may end up getting delayed or maybe even canceled.

AT&T has said that it would close the deal by mid-2022. By then fans should know a lot more about the future of many of these studios. With a huge business deal like this, subsidiaries like WB Gaming should encounter some problems. But it is believed that these studios will return to normalcy once the deal closes.

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