WB Games Sees Yearly Decline Despite Hogwarts Legacy's Impressive $850m Debut

The fantasy action-RPG Hogwarts Legacy has achieved over 12 million copies sold globally within its first two weeks of release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. This news coincides with Warner Bros Discovery's financial report for the nine months ending December 31, 2022, which also reveals the game has generated $850 million in sales since launching on February 10. Previously, it was reported that Hogwarts Legacy had the largest UK retail launch for a Harry Potter game to date. Development for other formats is ongoing. Warner Bros Discovery reported $11 billion in revenue for the first nine months of its fiscal year, with the Content segment – including TV licensing, home entertainment, and video games – accounting for $3.6 billion. While the performance of the games segment is difficult to discern due to its integration with Content and the impact of the Warner Media and Discovery merger last year, the company provided some insight into its video games business. Both the report and the accompanying earnings call, as transcribed by Seeking Alpha, noted that games and home entertainment revenues were lower due to 'COVID-induced demand in the prior year.' Nonetheless, CEO David Zaslav emphasized games as a 'core part of [Warner's] overall strategy,' with CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels stating the company plans to release six titles in 2023. Following Hogwarts Legacy, the next release will be the Rocksteady-developed Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, and Zaslav also mentioned the upcoming Mortal Kombat 12 during the call. There was no mention of Gotham Knights, which was the publisher's major Q4 release and received mixed reviews.