When the E3 2021 schedule was revealed a few days ago, Warner Bros. Games and Back 4 Blood were seemingly listed separately. This led several people to assume there would be two presentations, one for Turtle Rock Studios’ spiritual successor to Left 4 Dead and another for the rest of Warner Bros.’ upcoming titles. However, after sharing its own schedule, the Summer Game Fest Twitter account confirmed in a response to a fan question that the only title from Warner Bros. to be shown at E3 would be Back 4 Blood. (Editor’s Note: Though it’s unclear why E3 competitor Summer Game Fest is telling us what we’ll be seeing—or rather, not seeing—at the E3 2021 presentations.)
The Warner. Bros Games presentation is Back 4 Blood, there is not a separate event.
— Summer Game Fest – LIVE This Thursday (@summergamefest) June 4, 2021
This means there will presumably not be presentation footage from Gotham Knights, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Hogwarts Legacy, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, or anything new from any of their development studios like NetherRealm. This doesn’t necessarily mean the games won’t be there at all; the LEGO games are known for having separate E3 trailers, screenshots and other information that isn’t usually shown in a developer presentation, for example.
While players will inevitably be disappointed to not get major Warner Bros. game updates, the reason for the move could be due to recent upheaval caused by the merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery. Parent company AT&T had been reportedly looking to sell the video game wing of their business for a little while, with rumors that Microsoft was interested in acquiring the business. After a leadership turnover at AT&T, it looked like Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment would be staying put, but that all changed at the end of last month. Despite concerns the 11 different development studios would be split up, Discovery has since announced the studios will be staying together as part of a new “Warner Bros. Discovery” label.
At least Back 4 Blood will be getting a decent amount of airtime during the show. Turtle Rock Studios’ co-op zombie FPS aims to build on the legacy left by Left 4 Dead. Up to four players team up as cleaners to take down the worm-infested Ridden through a series of narrative-driven scenarios, each of which can be altered with a card system that adds modifiers to increase replayability. There’s every chance the presentation will be used to announce a start date or maybe even the launch of the open beta that is due to arrive this summer. The full game releases on October 12.
[Source: Twitter]
