Gotham Knights Game Studio Wbie Focusing On Live Service Updates For Future Titles

Even though licensed games were once seen as the scourge of the industry, the trend has made a strong comeback in recent years. Successes like

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

, and

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

are all critical and commercial successes from the last few years.

In the licensed game space, no one seems to be better positioned than Warner Bros. Games. Taking strong advantage of the multitude of licenses offered by the WB brand, the company is already in development on games in the worlds of DC, Lego Star Wars, and Harry Potter.

Even so, licensed games still have room to fail. One notable misfire is

Marvel’s

Avengers

, a live service title (meaning a game meant to keep players engaged for months on end with a slow drip-feed of new content and a solid gameplay loop) that has

struggled to maintain its player base

in the months since release.

Though licensed games appear to be having a comeback, the best model for these types of games is still not nailed down.

LEANING TOWARDS LIVE SERVICES

Information gathered from a

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

job posting sheds some light on the direction the company is taking. A blurb in the job description section notes that:

WBIE is currently involved in a variety of new projects, ranging from casual games to core games featuring our well-known franchises on all platforms (console, digital, mobile) with a heavy focus on live service.

The page also notes some targeted release windows for the projects currently in development, including

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

for Q2 2021,

Back 4 Blood

for June 2021,

Gotham Knights

for 2021,

Hogwarts Legacy

for 2022, and

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

for 2022.

All of these upcoming WBIE release dates are summarized nicely by the post below:

This info is tucked away in a recent internship listing on the WBIE career page. Currently in development titles at WBIE are:

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Q2 2021) Back 4 Blood (June 2021) Gotham Kinghts (2021) Hogwarts Legacy (2022) Suicide Squad: KTJC (2022)

2/4

WBIE’S PATH FORWARD

The most interesting piece of information from this posting seems to be the company acknowledging its

“heavy focus”

on live service content in its future titles. We’ve already seen evidence of this intention with games like

Gotham Knights

and

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

, both of which feature elements similar to the live service model, especially the latter.

In fact, out of the five games currently in development, online play is a key factor in three of the titles. Additionally, with little known about

Hogwarts Legacy

, it may turn out to feature more live components than originally believed.

It is also interesting that WBIE sees live service content as the best path forward. Recent releases in that mold, notably

Anthem

and

Marvel’s Avengers

, have seen difficulties related to this decision, both in critical reception and player count. Especially considering that Warner Bros. hasn’t yet released a live service, it seems a bit odd to totally shift towards that direction, but perhaps the studio is reading the tea leaves and sees live service content as the future for the gaming space.

Even though licensed games were once seen as the scourge of the industry, the trend has made a strong comeback in recent years. Successes like

Marvel’s Spider-Man

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

, and

Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor

are all critical and commercial successes from the last few years.

Even so, licensed games still have room to fail. One notable misfire is

Marvel’s

Avengers

, a live service title (meaning a game meant to keep players engaged for months on end with a slow drip-feed of new content and a solid gameplay loop) that has

struggled to maintain its player base

in the months since release.

Though licensed games appear to be having a comeback, the best model for these types of games is still not nailed down.

LEANING TOWARDS LIVE SERVICES

Information gathered from a

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

job posting sheds some light on the direction the company is taking. A blurb in the job description section notes that:

The page also notes some targeted release windows for the projects currently in development, including

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga

for Q2 2021,

Back 4 Blood

for June 2021,

Gotham Knights

for 2021,

Hogwarts Legacy

for 2022, and

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League

for 2022.

All of these upcoming WBIE release dates are summarized nicely by the post below:

This info is tucked away in a recent internship listing on the WBIE career page. Currently in development titles at WBIE are:

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga (Q2 2021) Back 4 Blood (June 2021) Gotham Kinghts (2021) Hogwarts Legacy (2022) Suicide Squad: KTJC (2022)

2/4

WBIE’S PATH FORWARD

The most interesting piece of information from this posting seems to be the company acknowledging its

“heavy focus”

on live service content in its future titles. We’ve already seen evidence of this intention with games like

Gotham Knights

and

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

, both of which feature elements similar to the live service model, especially the latter.

In fact, out of the five games currently in development, online play is a key factor in three of the titles. Additionally, with little known about

Hogwarts Legacy

, it may turn out to feature more live components than originally believed.

It is also interesting that WBIE sees live service content as the best path forward. Recent releases in that mold, notably

Anthem

and

Marvel’s Avengers

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