Amid a 41 percent year-over-year decline in games revenue in the second quarter of 2024, the commercial disaster that was Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and reported layoffs, Warner Bros. needs a hit. And the publisher is reportedly looking to the Hogwarts Legacy sequel to deliver it. A sequel to the best-selling game of 2023 is one of the studio’s biggest priorities, a Warner Bros. Discovery executive said this week.
Hogwarts Legacy Sequel ‘One of the Biggest Priorities’ at WB
Speaking at a conference Wednesday (via Variety), Gunnar Wiedenfels, chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, said a direct sequel to Hogwarts Legacy was a goal for the studio in the coming years.
“Clearly, a successor to ‘Hogwarts Legacy’ is one of the biggest priorities over the next couple of years,” Wiedenfels reportedly said at Bank of America’s 2024 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference. “So there’s definitely a significant growth contribution from that.” [games] “We believe that doing business is part of our strategic vision here,” he added.
It’s no surprise that Warner Bros. has high hopes for the Hogwarts Legacy sequel. Avalanche Software’s Wizarding World game was the biggest hit of 2023, selling more than 22 million copies by the end of the year. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment president David Haddad claimed earlier this year that the game sold two million copies during the Christmas holiday season alone.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Disappointed
Warner Bros. Games, however, has struggled to match that kind of success — or even come close — with its subsequent releases. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the studio’s tentpole triple-A launch this year, was a critical and commercial failure that led to a $200 million loss for the company. “Games revenues declined significantly due to the success of Hogwarts Legacy in the prior year quarter, while the Q1 release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League generated significantly lower revenues this year,” Warner Bros. said in its Earnings Report Q1 2024.
In the second quarter of this year, Warner Bros. reported that game revenues fell 41 percent year-over-year, largely due to the underperformance of Suicide Squad. A live-service looter-shooter, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, launched to mediocre reviews and low player interest from the start. Players criticized the game’s live-service model, especially since developer Rocksteady is known for its high-quality single-player games in the Batman Arkham series.
In his final comments, Wiedenfels is also said to have acknowledged that Suicide Squad was a “miss.”
Earlier this week, WB launched Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, another Wizarding World title focused on the magical sport from the world of Harry Potter, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.
