What are Warner Bros Games working on - A look at their studios
Warner Bros is a big company, from their movies to tv shows, music and of course comics via DC, they have their fingers in many pies, games are just one small portion of them.
2021 was a very quiet year for the publisher, most of the games that they were aiming to release all got pushed back 12 months, so if they all stick to the new release schedule, could make for a very busy year. Just a single note here, Multiversus, the free-to-play fighter made up of their characters, Batman, Bugs Bunny and such, is not being made internally, so it won’t be on this list.
For now, lets take a look at all their studios and see what is going on.
Avalanche Software
Series known to them: Disney Infinity
Avalanche Software have been around for a while and while their biggest release was Disney Infinity, when the game stopped production, the studio was broken up. But Disney let the folks keep the name and WB Games came in and reformed them, basically letting them all get back to work. What is interesting is their first game was Cars 3, which was a Disney IP, so its all circular.
Since that release though, the studio has been working away on Hogwarts Legacy a new adventure set in the Wizarding World and while the game was revealed back in 2020, it was never dated for release. While WB Games did say it should release in 2022, there are now some reports that are saying it may not hit that window, for now though, the team are working on it and we just have to wait and see.
Monolith Productions
Series known to them: Middle-earth series
Monolith Productions is the studio that created the much enjoyed Middle-earth: Shadow of series of games, complete with the unique Nemesis system and while the last title released back in 2017, since then, the studio has been really quiet.
We learnt last year that the studio was now creating a Wonder Woman game, but that game has no release date and the studio is still hiring for it, so the odds of a release this year are slim. Given the position the new game is in right now, I would question what the studio has been up to for the last 5 years, maybe they were helping out other WB Games studios, but something just seems off.
NetherRealm Studios
Series known to them: Mortal Kombat series, Injustice series
While the studio was only founded back in 2011, the team there have been working on Mortal Kombat since the early days and while the last big update from the studio was back at the start of the recent generation, November 2020 for those keeping track, the team have been quiet since then.
There are reports that their next title will take players back into the world of Injustice, the last one for that was released back in 2017, but there are also reports of a Mortal Kombat 12, but those reports put that one at April 2023, so a while away. Given the studios quiet stance, these past 12 months, I would imagine we hear something soon, April is usually when they start to tease their titles, so the wait shouldn’t be that long.
Rocksteady Studios
Series known to them: Batman: Arkham series
While the studio is known for their work on the Arkham series, they have been really quiet for a long time on their nex game, not counting the VR experience, the last mainline entry that the studio released was back in 2015, so this makes 7 years since then.
We know that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set to release this year, we just got our first gameplay trailer last year for it, but there is no word on when it will release this year, of course with a 7 year development cycle, it had want to be quite the interesting game.
TT Games Knutsford
Series known to them: Lego everything….
Travellers Tales is a unique group, their main studio is based out of Knutsford and I just used their name at the end, to help break up the teams. For years now the team have been creating Lego titles, from Star Wars to Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park to Batman and more beyond.
2022 should see the release of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, which tells the story of all 9 of the main movies and while it was revealed back in 2019, I even got to see it running, the game has been really quiet since then. It is expected in the later half of the year though, so hopefully we hear something soon, in order to build up more hype.
TT Games Wilmslow
Series known to them: Lego City series
For quite a while the Wilmslow location of Travellers Tales was best known as TT Fusion and focused on the handheld offerings, DS, 3DS and mobile, but once the devices started to reach parity in game design, the team was refocused on just supporting the development of the console games.
Their last reported release was 2018’s Lego The Incredibles and since then, they have been working on Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga.
TT Games Brighton
Series known to them: Lego Star Wars Battles
Best known for their mobile offerings, the Brighton group has had one big release in Lego Star Wars Battles, a PvP tower defence title and while the studio last updated the game a year ago, they have been quiet since.
There is no word on what the studio is working on next, they are quite small, at least when you compare them to other TT Games locations, it will likely be a mobile game and those are usually quiet until they just release.
WB Games Montréal
Series known to them: Batman: Arkham Origins
What was spun up to maximise the potential for the Arkham series, Montreal quickly gained attention for their work, the catch though is that the last game they released was 2013’s Arkham Origins. They did the DLC work for Rocksteady’s Arkham Knight though, throughout much of 2015, but like Rocksteady themselves, have been quiet since then.
2020 saw us get confirmation of their next game, Gotham Knights and that is expected to release this year, though there is no word as to when exactly it might hit. We did get a new trailer during the recent DC Fandome event, but even that was lacking a date, for now, we wait and hope the court of owls is ok with that.
WB Games Boston
Series known to them: Game of Thrones: Conquest, Batman: Arkham Underworld
The biggest title that this studio worked on over the years, was The Lord of the Rings Online and while they have had some success on PC, it was their release in 2017 of Game of Thrones: Conquest that threw them into the spotlight, not all for good.
The game has been getting constant updates since that released, its last one just hit a few days ago, there is no word on how much longer the game will be supported though, but given the upcoming prequel series for Game of Thrones, there is a fair chance, we might see more content arrive in the game, in some form at least.
WB Games New York
Series known to them: Support studio
Not a main developer, the studio tends to focus more on tools and analytics of games, in order to help other studios get things done on time. As such, there is no game expected from them this year, or likely any year.
WB Games San Diego
Series known to them: Nothing yet
The studio was founded back in 2019 and since then, they have been hiring up a lot, in order to release what they are aiming for, a AAA game of some description. The problem is, there is next to no information about what the studio is working on, almost as if they are not sure themselves, we can see their hiring history of course and what they are still looking to fill, but there is nothing beyond that.
The region that they have opened up in, is known for mobile development, but the game they are apparently making is meant to be for next gen consoles and PC, so for now we wait.
WB Games San Francisco
Series known to them: Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, Fantastic Beasts: Cases From the Wizarding World
You might not think of San Francisco as a hot bed for game development, but the city has countless developers, the WB Games branch is all focused on mobile games and the one they are currently working on, though not for much longer is Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, the real-world based game, akin to Pokemon Go.
That game is closing down at the end of the month and until that comes to pass, we won’t see anything new from them, the catch of course is that they are a mobile developer, so until they are ready to release something new, we might not hear much of anything from them.
So there we go, Warner Bros Interactive Entertainment, or WB Games for those with a sense of fun. We know they have a few big games meant to release this year, but who knows if that will come to pass. Do you think we were right, or way off base on this?
