Warner Bros. Discovery reported today that its game revenue suffered a major drop this quarter from the same period last year, largely due to weak performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Games revenue, under the WB Games division, dropped 41% year-over-year.
Though Suicide Squad's struggles were the main culprit, it was admittedly up against stiff competition: last year's comparable included strong sales of Hogwarts Legacy, which launched in February of 2023 and continued to do exceedingly well throughout the year that followed. It sold 22 million copies in 2023 alone , and has since reached 24 million. Suicide Squad, meanwhile, was panned by critics and called "disappointing" by WB Discovery boss David Zaslav last quarter, and resulted in a $200 million impairment charge in that report .
An impairment charge is a practice businesses use when they need to write off or report a reduction in the value of some of their assets that they previously thought would have a higher value. Speaking of impairment charges, Warner Bros. Discovery undertook a massive one this quarter outside of games.
The company reported revenue of $9.7 billion, but an overall net loss of $10 billion, $9.1 billion of which was due to impairment charges.
Officially, WB cited the charge as due to "the difference between market capitalization and book value, continued softness in the U.S. linear advertising market, and uncertainty related to affiliate and sports rights renewals, including the NB.