They keep them separate so the ”game stands by itself,” like Rocksteady has accomplished with Batman. Warner’s game division is still ”barely a blip” overall.
”We’re making the serious investments it takes to build franchises, and we don’t just want to release good games, we want to be sure that we make a statement,” Martin Tremblay, president of Warner Interactive, told the LA Times in an interview.
”The movie-based games business is broken, and for teen-targeted titles, we’re going to try and distance ourselves from the movies so the game stands by itself.”
The LA Times reported: ”Warner Interactive has about 1,800 employees and typically spends $30 million to $40 million to make its games. The unit expects to have its most profitable year in 2011 and is on track to generate close to $1 billion in sales.”
”That’s tiny compared with the $4.8 billion in box office the studio’s motion pictures generated last year and barely a blip for parent company Time Warner Inc., but it’s still significant,” continued the piece.
Warner Bros has been making some sound decisions lately with its game division IP with Mortal Kombat’s reboot a triumphant success, and Batman under the care of Rocksteady is fast becoming a well known and highly respected videogame franchise.
Batman: Arkham City releases on Xbox 360 and PS3 this week, PC November 8th.