Why Hollywood Is Still Struggling to Make the Most of Video Games
Warner Bros. Discovery shuttered three of its gaming studios last week, a reminder that Hollywood’s embrace of gaming remains ever insecure.
The conglomerate’s move wasn’t a surprise, given recent flops from WB Games including “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” which added $200 million in losses to the division’s balance sheet.
Even though course correction at AAA publishers has defined much of early 2025, the downsizing of WB Games represents a blow to what is still Hollywood’s most established games company beyond Sony’s PlayStation.
Warners’ studio contemporaries are merely licensors, as Disney pulled out of developing and publishing games in 2016. As WBD doubles down on in-house IP for its remaining game studios, it, too, will undoubtedly become a bigger licensor in the space.
Skydance could certainly swoop in and expand on the ground being ceded if its acquisition of Paramount Global makes it to the finish line. But Skydance Interactive is still mostly known in the VR gaming space, with its AAA New Media division still working to get its debut games out the door, though “Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra” is targeting a 2025 window.
Likewise, Bad Robot Games has yet to make its own debut on the AAA front, having just recently partnered with Konami on 2023’s “Silent Hill: Ascension” mobile game, which wasn’t received well. And while Blumhouse’s effort to replicate its low-budget, high-profit business model in gaming has seen the prodco get some titles out the door, none have delivered breakout success akin to the “Paranormal Activity” films that launched it into the spotlight.
There’s still Netflix, whose deep pockets and subscriber base of 300 million form an undeniable advantage as a newer gaming entrant. But Netflix already reversed its own AAA effort to launch an IP and is settling into a model of mobile and cloud-based games tied to its film and TV efforts, such as “The Electric State: Kid Cosmo.”
That game will become available to subscribers shortly after “The Electric State” begins streaming March 14 as one of Netflix’s last big film gambles, costing more than $300 million to produce.
On the flip side, Hollywood can still tout successful adaptations of gaming IP. April is going to be a big month on that front, as Warners’ “A Minecraft Movie” hits theaters April 4 and will be followed by the return of HBO’s “The Last of Us” on April 13. Sony’s “Until Dawn” film also drops April 25.
Still, the flurry of interest in such IP isn’t all it’s made out to be.
Despite the breakout success of “The Last of Us” and Amazon’s “Fallout” series, many traditional players appear wary of continuing to develop new TV hits based on games. There is nothing of the sort across WBD despite top-shelf gaming IP leading HBO’s current programming slate, nor is Peacock developing anything based on games after adding “Twisted Metal” to its originals.
Paramount does have a TV program based on a game in development after canceling “Halo” on Paramount+, but “Golden Axe” is intended to simply be an animated show on Comedy Central.
That’s hardly the expensive endeavor otherwise required for live-action series based on gaming IP, as games at the AAA level have already achieved photorealistic standards. Even so, animation can be just as expensive, as “Arcane” proved for Netflix and Riot Games.
Expect the future of gaming adaptations to come from the film side. The popularity of “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” on streaming don’t have the same ring to it as the more than $1 billion “Super Mario Bros. Movie” pulled in two years ago, effectively delivering a new leading film franchise returning in 2026 from Universal, which also has a modestly budgeted “Five Nights at Freddy’s” sequel due this December, courtesy of Blumhouse.
Even outside of its games front, Netflix has scaled back its vision for ambitious adaptations of gaming IP. A planned live-action TV series for “Horizon Zero Dawn” is no more, while a long-gestating film adaptation of “BioShock” from “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence is reportedly being reworked as a smaller project, which tracks with new Netflix film chief Dan Lin moving away from excess-budget efforts such as “The Electric State.”
Hollywood may be paying closer attention to gaming than it has before, but the film and TV industries’ cost-cutting priorities will continue to conflict heavily with in-house gaming operations and further attempts to bring gaming IP into traditional mediums.
The conglomerate’s move wasn’t a surprise, given recent flops from WB Games including “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” which added $200 million in losses to the division’s balance sheet.
Even though course correction at AAA publishers has defined much of early 2025, the downsizing of WB Games represents a blow to what is still Hollywood’s most established games company beyond Sony’s PlayStation.
Warners’ studio contemporaries are merely licensors, as Disney pulled out of developing and publishing games in 2016. As WBD doubles down on in-house IP for its remaining game studios, it, too, will undoubtedly become a bigger licensor in the space.
Skydance could certainly swoop in and expand on the ground being ceded if its acquisition of Paramount Global makes it to the finish line. But Skydance Interactive is still mostly known in the VR gaming space, with its AAA New Media division still working to get its debut games out the door, though “Marvel 1943: Rise of Hydra” is targeting a 2025 window.
Likewise, Bad Robot Games has yet to make its own debut on the AAA front, having just recently partnered with Konami on 2023’s “Silent Hill: Ascension” mobile game, which wasn’t received well. And while Blumhouse’s effort to replicate its low-budget, high-profit business model in gaming has seen the prodco get some titles out the door, none have delivered breakout success akin to the “Paranormal Activity” films that launched it into the spotlight.
There’s still Netflix, whose deep pockets and subscriber base of 300 million form an undeniable advantage as a newer gaming entrant. But Netflix already reversed its own AAA effort to launch an IP and is settling into a model of mobile and cloud-based games tied to its film and TV efforts, such as “The Electric State: Kid Cosmo.”
That game will become available to subscribers shortly after “The Electric State” begins streaming March 14 as one of Netflix’s last big film gambles, costing more than $300 million to produce.
On the flip side, Hollywood can still tout successful adaptations of gaming IP. April is going to be a big month on that front, as Warners’ “A Minecraft Movie” hits theaters April 4 and will be followed by the return of HBO’s “The Last of Us” on April 13. Sony’s “Until Dawn” film also drops April 25.
Still, the flurry of interest in such IP isn’t all it’s made out to be.
Despite the breakout success of “The Last of Us” and Amazon’s “Fallout” series, many traditional players appear wary of continuing to develop new TV hits based on games. There is nothing of the sort across WBD despite top-shelf gaming IP leading HBO’s current programming slate, nor is Peacock developing anything based on games after adding “Twisted Metal” to its originals.
Paramount does have a TV program based on a game in development after canceling “Halo” on Paramount+, but “Golden Axe” is intended to simply be an animated show on Comedy Central.
That’s hardly the expensive endeavor otherwise required for live-action series based on gaming IP, as games at the AAA level have already achieved photorealistic standards. Even so, animation can be just as expensive, as “Arcane” proved for Netflix and Riot Games.
Expect the future of gaming adaptations to come from the film side. The popularity of “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” on streaming don’t have the same ring to it as the more than $1 billion “Super Mario Bros. Movie” pulled in two years ago, effectively delivering a new leading film franchise returning in 2026 from Universal, which also has a modestly budgeted “Five Nights at Freddy’s” sequel due this December, courtesy of Blumhouse.
Even outside of its games front, Netflix has scaled back its vision for ambitious adaptations of gaming IP. A planned live-action TV series for “Horizon Zero Dawn” is no more, while a long-gestating film adaptation of “BioShock” from “Hunger Games” director Francis Lawrence is reportedly being reworked as a smaller project, which tracks with new Netflix film chief Dan Lin moving away from excess-budget efforts such as “The Electric State.”
Hollywood may be paying closer attention to gaming than it has before, but the film and TV industries’ cost-cutting priorities will continue to conflict heavily with in-house gaming operations and further attempts to bring gaming IP into traditional mediums.