Earlier in April the merger between Discovery and WarnerMedia officially closed, becoming Warner Bros. Discovery. Warner Bros. Interactive's game studios have largely been left alone through the merger period, only selling Playdemic to EA in June 2021. Now that the merger is finalized and Warner Bros. Discovery is restructuring, plans for Warner Bros. Interactive's studios appear to have changed. A report claims that Warner Bros. Discovery is already shopping its studios to interested parties, which include PlayStation and Xbox.The report comes from Fanbyte Media's Imran Khan, who says that he's "hearing a decent bit of chatter" regarding WB Discovery's new plans. Khan explains that WB Discovery's shopping its game studios around. The list of studios at Warner Bros. Interactive currently includes Hogwarts Legacy studio Avalanche Software, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor dev Monolith Productions, Mortal Kombat creator NetherRealm Studios, Batman: Arkham and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League studio Rocksteady Studios, as well as TT Games, and WB studios in Montreal, Boston, New York, San Diego, and San Francisco.One detail that Khan draws attention to is that WB Discovery is specifically considering selling its game studios and not its intellectual property. In other words, WB Discovery wants to sell Rocksteady and license out the Batman and Suicide Squad properties, sell Avalanche and license Harry Potter, and, potentially, sell NetherRealm while retaining and licensing Mortal Kombat.
It should come as no surprise that a list of parties is already interested in potentially acquiring one of WB Discovery's game studios, a list that Khan has also shared online. Both Microsoft and Sony are on the list, unsurprisingly, as they're both aggressively acquiring studios for Xbox and PlayStation, respectively. Other interested parties include Electronic Arts, Netease, Take-Two, Tencent, and even PUBG Corp. Needless to say, if Warner Bros. Discovery does sell its studios then it can expect some aggressive bids.
What remains to be seen is just how willing Warner Bros. Discovery will be to break up its studios into pieces. It could likely sell the entire umbrella of Warner Bros. Interactive, with all of its studios, if it wanted to. Or, it could sell its studios piecemeal, with one going to PlayStation, one going to Xbox, and so on. It could also deign to keep certain studios.
One thing worth making clear is that Khan leaves some uncertainty in his reporting on WB Discovery's game studios. He's confident enough to share what he's heard on Twitter, but says he couldn't get the kind of confirmation he'd want for a full post. Khan wouldn't be sharing it at all unless he was confident to a reasonable degree, however. Expect more reporting on the subject of Warner Bros. Discovery studio sales going forward.