Netflix is officially going through with purchasing Warner Bros. for a staggering $82.7 billion in what is one of the biggest corporate deals in history. But aside from acquiring the whole film and TV side of WB, it's also getting WB Games, which could have a significant impact on the industry.
Two things will happen to video games with this acquisition: one, Netflix will become the owner of some of the biggest IPs on the planet. DC Comics, The Lord of the Rings (to a limited extent), Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, and many others; and two, the company gains control of established WB Games franchises, many of which are under the umbrella of the aforementioned IPs.
The Middle-earth games, Batman, Hogwarts, Mortal Kombat, and countless other series will come into the hands of the world's biggest streaming service. Additionally, Netflix will now have the Nemesis system, a proprietary patent of Warner Bros. that was first introduced with Shadow of Mordor, which sees the game dynamically develop relationships between the player and those enemies they kill (or which kill them).
Netflix thus has limitless opportunities to pursue. We could see the company start to invest heavily into WB Games, perhaps even merging it with its own Netflix Games division. The latter produced largely mobile games and smaller projects, but also hosts big names like Red Dead Redemption on its platform. With WB Games in tow, Netflix Games could be significantly expanded with ports, spin-offs, and new games based on both the IPs owned by Warner Bros. in general and those subfranchises like the Arkham series, for example.
On the other hand, and what could be more likely, is that Netflix will start outsourcing these IPs to other, more established game development studios, raking in free cash in the process with literally zero effort. After all, the likes of Sony, Netease, and others already source a lot of Marvel-related IPs from Disney, so it's not as if there's no industry precedent for this.
We could see Santa Monica-produced Justice League games, or Chinese megacorporations swooping in to grab ultra-popular IPs and turning them into live-service multiplayer games in Marvel Rivals style. Anything goes in this case.
Lastly, Netflix is first and foremost a film and television company, one that thrives off its subscription service. It has probably pursued this deal to grab Warner Bros.' many studios and production capabilities, as well as to seemingly isolate HBO, one of its main competitors, which is currently owned by WB-Discovery. With this increase in production capacity, we could expect Netflix to make a whole lot more series and films, as well as to exploit these huge properties it has acquired alongside WB.
Video game adaptations have become super popular in recent times, so it's safe to say Netflix would make use of its new (and expensive) position to chase that trend. Batman: Arkham - The TV Show, anyone?
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