In a follow up to their previous report on the colossal sales of Hogwarts Legacy, Variety spoke with Warner Bros. Discovery CEO of global streaming and gaming JB Perrette and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment president David Haddad about the company's upcoming video game plans, particularly in regards to DC Studios Co-Chair James Gunn's DC Studios.
When Gunn unveiled the ambitious Chapter 1: Gods and Monsters film slate, he mentioned that the DC Studios slate would include television, animation and video game projects, with actors portraying the same character across all mediums.
So does that mean every WB Games title moving forward after the release of Superman: Legacy in 2025 will be something that ties into the DCU? Not exactly.
“Frankly, there hasn’t been as close a relationship between the studio and the games business as there should have been. And James is actually a gamer, so having someone who’s passionate about it is super helpful,” stated Warner Bros. Discovery CEO of global streaming and gaming JB Perrette. He added that Warner Bros. Games is “actively working with [Gunn and Safran] on the core franchises within the DC Universe.”
“While they’re working on a Superman movie title, we’re not going to launch a Superman game purely because we feel obligated,” Perrette says. “We have to do something that makes sense for the gaming strategy and for fans and for the consumer.”
Sounds like fans shouldn't expect every title to tie into the DCU or that every major DCU project will result in a tie-in video game.
In years past, that was the line of thinking for superhero film Tobey Maguire's 2002 Spider-Man movie had a tie-in game for PlayStation 2, Xbox, GameCube, Microsoft Windows and PC. The 2004 sequel to the film also had a tie-in game. Maguire and the main cast all voiced their video game counterparts in both titles.
Likewise, a tie-in game for X-Men Origins: Wolverine was released the same day as the film hit theaters, with Hugh Jackman lending his voice talents to the Raven Software hack-and-slash action-adventure game.
Even the MCU got in on the practice before the fad died out with 2011's Captain America: Super Soldier for the Nintendo DS, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360, and Nintendo 3DS. In the game, Chris Evans, Neal McDonough, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, and Kenneth Choi all reprised their roles from Captain America: The First Avenger.
Yet, between 2002 and 2011, there were several video games featuring the above Marvel heroes that didn't tie into their respective cinematic universes and it sounds like WB Games is looking to revive the practice of tie-in and standalone games with DC Studios.