Warner Bros. Are Shutting Down Multiple Studios and Cancelling Wonder Woman

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Today, Warner Bros Games have confirmed that they are to close three studios and will be halting work on the highly anticipated, yet long MIA, Wonder Woman game. The publisher has struggled to release high quality and high revenue titles for several years and now aims to make significant changes across the company.

On the back of disastrous commercial performance of 2024's Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League and the already largely forgotten Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, there will be significant studio closures. The following studios are set to be closed down:

Monolith Productions - Wonder Woman, Middle Earth: Shadow of War and F.E.A.R.
Player First Games (whose website already appears to have gone offline) - MutliVersus
Warner Bros. Games San Diego

Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League was a failure

In news that initially leaked to Bloomberg and investigative games journalist veteran, Jason Schreier, WB have finally broken their silence on the story. WB Head of Games and Streaming, JB Parette had the following to say "The quality of too many of our new releases has really missed the mark... We need to make some substantial changes to our portfolio/team structure if we are to commit the necessary resources to get back to a "˜fewer but bigger franchises' strategy"

Warner Bros. Discover Inc. will now be looking to capitalise on the success of major franchises that will likely offer more assured revenue including: Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Batman and finally Harry Potter, following the mega success of 2022's Hogwarts Legacy - with new DLC and a sequel highly expected.

Although it is yet to be officially confirmed what will happen to the employees of the three shuttered companies, it would seem that further redundancies are likely. In an attempt to soften the blow, a WB spokesperson said that the news was "not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them."

Today's news is a real blow for fans of some pretty large franchises (and fans of the cult Condemned series, RIP). However, there have been some questionable decisions from the very top of WB. The much-loved Batman Arkham series has been on a long hiatus since Arkham Knight, a series that seems a complete banker for the publisher should it return.

What does this mean for the future of Harry Potter and Batman games? Will we see less innovation in pursuit of more simplistic wins? Let us know in the comments below.