Pokemon Company CEO sees the franchise lasting another 50-100 years
“Game On” is The Fly’s weekly recap of the stories powering up or beating down video game stocks.
NEW RELEASES: This week’s most notable release is Electronic Arts’ (EA) co-operative action-adventure title “Split Fiction,” which launches March 6 for PC, PlayStation 5 (SONY), and Xbox Series X/S (MSFT).
WARNER BROS. GAMES:
Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) shut down game studios Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego last week in an effort to boost profitability for its Games business, Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier reported, citing sources. The company also canceled its “Wonder Woman” game, which was first announced in late 2021, the author noted, citing a memo to staff.
The news came weeks after Schreier reported that the media giant’s games division had continued to have difficulty with the development of new projects in the wake of last year’s flop “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.” Prior to its recent cancellation, “Wonder Woman” was rebooted early last year with a new director and has already cost over $100M to make. Meanwhile, Rocksteady, the Warner Bros.-owned studio responsible for “Suicide Squad” and the “Batman: Arkham” games, is looking to make a new single-player “Batman” game, but that new project appears to be years away from landing, Schreier added, citing people familiar with the timeline.
Click here to check out recent Media Buzz Sentiment on Warner Bros. Discovery as measured by TipRanks.
POKEMON CEO COMMENTS:
Tsunekazu Ishihara, CEO of The Pokemon Company, said he believes the franchise can remain popular for another 50 to 100 years, BBC’s Mariko Oi and Mel Ramsay reported. During a Pokemon Presents event last week, the company provided updates on a multitude of Pokemon-related projects, including mobile games, the collectible card game, the Netflix (NFLX) series “Pokemon Concierge,” and upcoming Nintendo Switch (NTDOY) games “Pokemon Champions” and “Pokemon Legends: Z-A,” the authors noted. The Fly notes that The Pokemon Company is a joint venture owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures.
ROCKSTAR:
Take-Two’s (TTWO) Rockstar Games announced the acquisition of Video Games Deluxe, the Sydney-based development studio. The studio will be renamed Rockstar Australia. Video Games Deluxe has worked with Rockstar Games on a number of titles, including the 2017 re-releases of “L.A. Noire,” “L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files,” and most recently, on upgrades to “Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition” for iOS and Android, Netflix, and modern consoles.
MORE VIDEO GAME NEWS:
- Capcom (CCOEY) said that “Monster Hunter Wilds” surpassed 8M units sold in its first three days of availability
- Sony announced a lower recommended retail price for its PlayStation VR2 headset
- GameStop (GME) and Zip Co. announced a partnership in which Zip will be GameStop’s primary pay-in-installments service for online and in-store customers in the U.S.
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Originally Posted March 4, 2025 – Game On: Warner Bros. shutters three game studios in profit push
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