Warner Bros. Discovery President of Global Streaming and Games, J.B. Perrette, has hinted that Hogwarts Legacy 2 may be a live-service game. The company will be increasing its focus on live-service, mobile, and free-to-play games, and its hugely successful IP is one of the main titles sitting in that spotlight.
Hogwarts Legacy 2 should avoid being a “one-and-done” game
At yesterday’s Morgan Stanley Technology Media and Telecom Conference, Perette described today’s games industry as “volatile.” Warner Bros. Discovery has traditionally focused on the AAA console-based market. While this has worked for them previously with games like Hogwarts Legacy, which became 2023’s best-selling game worldwide, other games like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League were “not as strong.”
Now the company is looking at a “much more holistic approach” with an increased focus on live service games. One example led to hints that Hogwarts Legacy 2 may not have the same format as its predecessor:
Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example, Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live-service where people can live and work and build and play in that world on an ongoing basis?
There is already Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, a competitive multiplayer game in development to help with that plan. However, Harry Potter isn’t the only gaming franchise to be part of this approach. Warner Bros. already has desires for Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and the DC world like Batman to take a similar direction into live service, as well as towards the mobile and multi-platform free-to-play space.
This new direction is expected to give the company “a much better and more consistent settled revenue,” but Warner Bros. won’t be completely moving away from the one-and-done console games altogether. The publisher has already said that the upcoming Wonder Woman game will not be a live-service title.
The future begins with some mobile free-to-play games that will be launching later this year, although there weren’t any specifics on these games. Regardless, Warner Bros. knows that this is a multi-year plan that it hopes will provide “meaningful growth over the course of the next couple of years” and the results won’t be instant.
