Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Inc.
legal form Incorporated
founding 1993 (as Warner Bros. Consumer Products)
Seat Burbank , California , United StatesUnited StatesUnited States 
Branch Software development
Website www.wbgames.com

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Inc. ( WBIE ) is a division of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group . It is a global publisher , developer , licensor and distributor of computer games, both for in-house and third-party productions. Warner Bros. Games, among others, operates under its roof, concentrating on the creation, development and production of in-house productions and is also the largest publishing unit. The in-house productions include a. Software implementation of the in-house DC comic series ( Batman , Superman ), the film license for The Lord of the Rings and the Lego toy brand. Because of the extensive brand portfolio as well as the distribution, marketing and sales infrastructure of Warner Home Video , WBIE is regarded as a major global computer game publisher.

history

Previous Time Warner gaming activity

Even before the founding of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, there were efforts within the Time Warner group to gain a foothold in the games industry. In October 1976, what was then Warner Communications acquired the Californian computer game pioneer Atari ( Pong ) for $ 28 million . Atari dominated the US game market for a few years and at its peak contributed half of consolidated sales and two-thirds of operating profit before it went into decline in late 1982. Serious failures brought Atari massive losses, the sales of the Warner group shrank by 56.5%, the share value fell by a third in a short time. Warner lost around a billion US dollars and had to be a. against a hostile takeover attempt by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation . The weakness of competitors and the loss of trust among customers led to the collapse of the US computer game market in 1983 (so-called video game crash ). Atari was therefore split into two companies. The home computer and game console division was sold as Atari Corporation to Commodore founder Jack Tramiel in July 1984 . A few months later, in February 1985, the majority of the Atari Games arcade division went to business partner Namco .

After the merger to Time Warner, the group finally acquired a controlling majority in its former subsidiary Atari Interactive in 1993 and ran it from April 1994 to 1996 under the name Time Warner Interactive Entertainment. In order to reduce the debt level of the entire group, Time Warner Interactive Entertainment was sold in March 1996 to WMS Industries . It operated until February 2003 as a subsidiary of Midway Games , first under the old company name Atari Games, and finally as Midway Games West.

Licensed productions

In 1995, the company issued the computer game license for Batman Forever to Acclaim Entertainment under the name Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment . Over the years, further software licenses for products from the Cartoon Network , DC Comics , Hanna-Barbera , Looney Tunes and various Warner Bros. films have been granted to external game publishers such as Ubisoft , Electronic Arts , Infogrames and THQ .

In 2003 the company released its first co-production with Electronic Arts, Looney Tunes: Back in Action , developed by Warthog Games. In 2004 Warner Bros. took over the development studio Monolith Productions ( FEAR ). In 2005 the label WB Games was introduced. The first game that Monolith created in collaboration with Warner Bros. Entertainment was The Matrix Online , which was published in collaboration with Sega . Warner Bros. also helped distribute the computer games Enter the Matrix and The Matrix: Path of Neo for the Matrix series of films. In 2006 the company acquired a 10.3% stake in the British game publisher SCi Entertainment , the parent company of Eidos Interactive . In return, SCi received the right to develop computer games under Warner licenses, including Batman . In the same year WBIE first published a computer game without the support of partner companies, Justice League Heroes , only the distribution for the Xbox was taken over by Eidos. In 2007, the company set the goal of gaining a permanent foothold in the computer game industry with the help of a five-year plan. The plan was to take over existing developer studios to increase internal development capacities and to set up a new studio (WB Games) in the Seattle area to oversee all games developed and published by the company. In the same year Warner Bros. took over the developer and publisher TT Games ( Lego computer games) for 100 million British pounds .

In April 2008, the company increased its stake in SCi Entertainment for £ 15 million, thereby acquiring the distribution rights to all Eidos games in the USA , Canada and Mexico . On December 15, 2008, shortly after SCi was renamed Eidos plc , Time Warner acquired an additional ten million shares in the company, increasing its stake to 19.92%. An agreement had been canceled a month earlier, which prevented Time Warner from acquiring further shares. On January 28, 2009, The Hollywood Reporter reported an agreement that warner secured the film rights to the Tomb Raider series, previously held by Paramount Pictures . On February 12, 2009, the Japanese publisher Square Enix made a takeover bid of £ 84.3 million for Eidos, plc, which was supported by Warner Bros. Square Enix acquired Eidos on April 22, 2009 and renamed the company Square Enix Europe .

Strong expansion from 2009

Warner Bros. announced on February 4, 2009 the acquisition of the independent developer Snowblind Studios , who had developed the title Justice League Heroes for Warner in 2006. In 2009, as part of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings of the US publisher Midway Games , Time Warner acquired most of its assets for $ 49 million. Midway Games had previously worked with Warner Bros. on several games, including Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe , worked. At a planned auction of the assets on June 29, 2009, Warner was the only company to submit an offer. The transaction was completed on July 10, 2009. In this way, Warner acquired, among others, Midway's Mortal Kombat development team in Chicago, the Surreal Software studio , and the trademark rights to the Joust , Mortal Kombat , The Suffering , Spy Hunter , Blitz: The League and Wheelman game series . The name and trademark rights of the former Time Warner subsidiary Atari Corporation / Midway Games West came back into the company's possession. On July 28, 2009, the Mortal Kombat development team (led by series creator and creative director Ed Boon ) was renamed WB Games Chicago, and in 2010 it was renamed NetherRealm Studios .

On January 13, 2010 it was announced that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment had the exclusive development rights for Sesame Street computer games . The games Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure and Cookie's Counting Carnival were announced for autumn 2010 as first releases . On February 23, 2010, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announced the acquisition of a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios , an independent computer game developer in London , in which Square Enix Europe (formerly Eidos) also held 25.1%. Through the licensing deal between Warner and SCi / Eidos in 2006, Rocksteady had developed Batman: Arkham Asylum , published in 2009, and was already working on the successor Batman: Arkham City at the time of the takeover by Warner . On March 22, 2010, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment opened a development studio in Montreal , under the direction of President Martin Tremblay, to develop games for the DC Comics brands under the name WB Games Montreal . On April 9, 2010, Warner Bros announced the release of Monolith Productions first-person shooter Fear 3 . On April 20, 2010, the takeover of the MMORPG specialist Turbine, Inc. ( Asheron's Call , Dungeons & Dragons Online , The Lord of the Rings Online ) was announced. On June 4, 2010, The Lord of the Rings Online was finally switched from the previous subscription model to free-to-play . On June 10, 2010, Mortal Kombat was announced by NetherRealm Studios for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles . Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment released an adaptation of the Wii title Game Party , a collection of sports and arcade games, on November 4, 2010 , as one of the launch titles for Microsoft's Kinect motion control . The game was released under the title Game Party: In Motion .

In 2012, Warner Bros. Interactive published the action game Lollipop Chainsaw , developed by Grasshopper Manufacture , produced by Suda 51 and with the participation of filmmaker James Gunn .

Following the appointment of Kevin Tsujihara , General Manager of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment, as Chairman and CEO of Warner Bros. Entertainment in 2013, he promoted Diane Nelson, President of DC Entertainment, to President and Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. At the E3 2013 computer game fair , Warner Bros., in collaboration with Avalanche Studios, announced the development of an MMORPG based on the Mad Max film series . In June 2019, the augmented reality game Harry Potter: Wizards Unite , based on the Harry Potter franchise , was published in collaboration with Niantic .

Development studios

Current

Former

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment :: Games . Wbie.com. Retrieved August 23, 2013
  2. ↑ The Game Turns Serious at Atari ( English ) In: The New York Times . December 19, 1982. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  3. ↑ Kenneth B. Noble: 2 Charged In Atari Stock Sale ( English ) In: The New York Times . September 27, 1983. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  4. ^ Roger Cohen: The Creator of Time Warner, Steven J. Ross, Is Dead at 65 ( English ) In: The New York Times . December 21, 1992. Retrieved May 31, 2013.
  5. ↑ COMPUTER: Business is war . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1984 ( online ).
  6. ^ Warner to Share Unit with Namco ( English ) In: The New York Times . February 5, 1985. Retrieved June 6, 2013.
  7. ↑ http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Time+Warner+Interactive+Promotes+Stephen+Wahid+To+Director+of+Product...-a017600204
  8. ↑ http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/25/business/time-warner-to-sell-part-or-all-of-its-stake-in-atari.html
  9. ↑ http://www.thefreelibrary.com/WMS+Industries+to+Acquire+Atari+Games+Corporation.-a018060073
  10. ↑ http://articles.latimes.com/1996-03-08/business/fi-44546_1_time-warner-interactive
  11. ↑ - ( Memento of the original from November 3, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.highbeam.com
  12. ↑ Warner Bros. Buys Monolith ( English ) In: TechSpot . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  13. ↑ Warner Bros, SCi Sign Investment, Licensing Agreement on gamasutra.com (English)
  14. ↑ Leigh Alexander: Q&A: Warner Bros' Ryan Talks Expansion, Acquisition, Superheroes ( English ) In: Gamasutra . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  15. ^ Ludwig Kietzmann: Report: TT Games sold to Warner Bros. for approx. $ 210 million ( English ) In: Joystiq . Archived from the original on December 13, 2007. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  16. ^ Warner Bros. Strengthens Partnership with SCi ( English ) Edge Online. April 28, 2008. Archived from the original on May 23, 2012. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  17. ↑ Time Warner has picked up an additional 10 million shares, raising its total stake in Eidos to about 20% percent. ( English ) In: Game Daily . December 15, 2008. Retrieved January 31, 2009.
  18. ↑ Steven Zeitchik: Lara Croft to return to the big screen ( English ) In: The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  19. ^ Offer for Eidos plc ( English ) Square Enix Holdings Co Limited. February 12, 2009. Retrieved February 12, 2009.
  20. ↑ David Jenkins: Warner Backs Square Enix Bid For Eidos ( English ) In: Gamasutra . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  21. ↑ Randy Nelson: Warner Bros Interactive acquires Snowblind Studios ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . Archived from the original on February 8, 2009. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  22. ↑ Todd Spangler: Midway Completes Time Warner Sale ( English ) In: Multichannel . Archived from the original on July 20, 2009. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  23. ↑ Ben Gilbert: Mortal Kombat team sheds Midway skin for 'WB Games Chicago' ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . Archived from the original on July 29, 2009. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  24. ↑ Kris Pigna: Warner Bros. Emerges as Sole Bidder for Midway ( English ) In: latimes.com . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  25. ↑ http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1022080/000095012309009497/c51466exv2w1.htm
  26. ↑ Matt Martin: Mortal Kombat studio becomes WB Games Chicago ( English ) In: gamesindustry . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  27. ↑ Ryan Smith: WB Games Chicago Soon To Be Netherrealm Studios? . ChicagoNow. April 9, 2010. Archived from the original on November 2, 2014. Retrieved on March 17, 2011.
  28. ^ AP on January 13, 2013: Warners to produce 'Sesame Street' video games
  29. ^ Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Announces Sesame Street: Elmo's A-to-Zoo Adventure and Sesame Street: Cookie's Counting Carnival . EON. Archived from the original on February 27, 2012. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved November 10, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / eon.businesswire.com
  30. ^ Ludwig Kietzmann: Warner Bros. acquires Batman dev Rocksteady Studios ( English ) In: Joystiq . AOL . Archived from the original on March 25, 2010. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  31. ↑ a b Warner Interactive Opening Montreal Studio ( English ) In: GameFocus . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  32. ↑ Katherine Brice: Warner Bros announces FEAR 3 ( English ) In: gamesindustry . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  33. ↑ Matt Martin: Lord of the Rings Online adopts free-to-play model ( English ) In: gamesindustry . Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  34. ↑ Press Releases- Newsroom . Time Warner. Retrieved August 23, 2013
  35. ↑ Eddie Makuch: Game Party: In Motion slated for Kinect launch ( English ) In: Gamespot . Archived from the original on June 16, 2010. Retrieved November 10, 2014.
  36. ↑ Johnny Cullen: Warner to publish Grasshopper's Lollipop Chainsaw (English) , vg247 . August 1, 2011. 
  37. ↑ Cynthia Littleton: Kevin Tsujihara Realigns Management of WB's TV, Home Entertainment Units ( English ) In: Variety . May 14, 2013. Archived from the original on August 14, 2013. Retrieved on November 10, 2014: “DC Entertainment prexy Diane Nelson adds oversight of the WB Interactive Entertainment unit overseeing its vidgame biz. She'll now have dual report to Tsujihara and motion picture group topper Jeff Robinov. "
  38. ^ Diane Nelson ( English ) DCEntertainment.com. 2014. Archived from the original on June 26, 2014. Retrieved November 10, 2014: “As President & Chief Content Officer of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, Nelson has the additional responsibilities of overseeing the development, production and marketing of all video game titles for WBIE, including those based on DC characters, as well as other Warner Bros. properties and original IP. "
  39. ↑ http://www.polygon.com/2013/6/10/4416956/mad-max-avalanche-studios-ps4
  40. ↑ http://kotaku.com/disney-infinity-studio-resurrected-by-warner-bros-1791588162
  41. ↑ Chris Kerr: Lego game developer TT Games acquires mobile specialist, Playdemic . ( gamasutra.com [accessed February 9, 2017]).
  42. ^ Marc Graser: Warner Bros. Opens San Francisco Game Studio . In: Variety , March 22, 2013. Retrieved March 25, 2013.