Warner snatches back its game licenses :: Games News :: Articles

Warner Bros. announced that they plan on taking back the game licenses of their properties, including Superman, Batman, Harry Potter, The Sopranos and more. This comes as part of a larger announcement that the company plans on becoming a game publisher, hoping to become a $1 billion division within five years.

"The ability to cross promote our games product with our movie product in a compelling way will be key," said Warner's senior VP of worldwide sales and distribution Ron Scott to MCV . "Our home video guys are very keen to target PS3 and 360 owners with next-gen movie formats. There are huge marketing and cross-merchandising possibilities."

Unfortunately, this does not bode well for the integrity of future games. Not even counting their lack of past success in most of these franchises (Superman 64 is often considered the worst game of all time), the fact that Warner is concerned with marketing possibilities rather than the raising the quality in their titles makes this a frightening proposition.

Not quite as silly, though, as last week's announcement that MTV is planning to invest more than $500 million into video games, following their earlier decision to back Rock Band. As bad as another Superman game seems destined to be, the game version of My Super Sweet 16 may give it a run for its money in terms of sheer unplayability.

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