Suicide Squad Cost Warner Bros. $200 Million In Revenue

submitted by simple

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AmidFuror

“Starting with Studios, the $400 million+ year-over-year decline during Q1 was primarily due to the very tough comp we faced in games against the success of Hogwart’s Legacy last year in the first quarter, in conjunction with the disappointing Suicide Squad release this past quarter, which we impaired, leading to a $200 million impact to EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) during the first quarter,” CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said during the investor call after the report was published.

This doesn't line up at all with what Insider Gaming wrote. I don't think they know how to interpret company financials.

Costing revenue itself is a questionable phrase. A game can miss its revenue target, but that's not the same thing. Here it looks like earnings were lower by $200M due in part to more than $400M lower revenue comparing to a Q1 2023, which had the Hogwarts Legacy release.

Itsamelemmy

So basically the single player offline game made bank, but they keep pushing this live service crap thinking it's going to be the next GTA online and not what 90% of the live service crap ends up being.

BigPotato

You miss 100% of the shots you don't take. One in ten isn't bad odds.

mosiacmango , edited

Alana Pierce has a great take on this. Her pount is that all games are a risk, but live service has a chance at infinite upside.

Suits dont give a shit about anything but risk/reward, so live service always seems like the right choice to them, even if 99% of them bomb.

slaacaa

This is a very good point. It also shows the delusion of the executives, thinking that their next shitty looter shooter will become the new Fortnite, not understanding the oversaturation of the market. People have limited hours to play per day, the only way they can play your game is if they stop playing something else.

Cethin , edited

That's the thought process, and it's also what's going to bring a lot of these companies down. Their shitty game isn't going to beat the odds when all the other shitty games are also being pushed. Their chance of success and potential return figures are likely off by a large margin.

Edit: For example, Overwatch, which has actually hit the mainstream and has a fairly large player base, I think still isn't profitable.

skulblaka

I think it was profitable, at one point, up until the bait and switch that was Overwatch 2.

lorty

If it costs 200 million to take a shot, maybe it isn't great odds.

BigPotato

If you've got a market cap of three trillion and the investors expect three trillion plus one next quarter, can you afford to risk it?

slaacaa , edited

Good demonstration of the current quality of journalism. “Cost X in revenue” doesn’t make any sense, as cost and revenue are the exact opposite things, the difference of which (if I simplify) make up the EBITDA that the quote from the company actually referenced for the 200 M USD negative impact.

I’m not expecting a game journalist be an ACCA certified accountant, but should be at least able to write an accurate title based on the available quotes and information.

simple [OP]

Something something reap what you sow

Alteon

Yeah, they really went in hard with Suicide Squad, to be perfectly frank, the only good thing to come out of suicide squad was the Peacemaker show on HBO.

BossDj

Best intro EVER

BertramDitore

DO YA REALLY WANNA DO YA REALLY WANNA TASTE IIIIT!

I just watched it twice in a row, thank you very much.

Eeyore_Syndrome , edited

🇳🇴🤘🎸 - The Original Wig Wam:

BossDj

Thanks, I'd never seen that! It's pretty glorious itself

SpaceNoodle , edited

And *The* Suicide Squad.

snooggums

The Suicide Squad.

SpaceNoodle

Oof, thank you

Sphks

And Barbie. What a spin-off !

Cruxifux

Yeah. Sucks they aren’t even planning on starting production on season 2 till 2025

Etterra

If only every live service game and technology suffered the same fate. Also p2w.

Protoknuckles

So far.

Stovetop

Lesson learned: there can be no good Suicide Squad title unless prefixed by "The".

GlitterInfection

Fun fact, The Suicide Squad (2021) was a box office flop, whereas Suicide Squad (2016), the only academy award winning DCEU film, was a box office smash hit!

Stovetop

Well, hard for it to succeed at the box office when movie theaters were still closed/avoided in the midst of the pandemic.

GlitterInfection , edited

It still failed to hit projected box office returns with that factored in!

It's just funny because it's a good movie and the first one won an academy award but is terrible.

And they won it for writing "damaged" on Joker's forehead... at least in part.

lowleveldata

And what's 200M to Warner Bros? Nothing

THCDenton

VanHalbgott

What, are they some sort of…Suicide Squad?

Destide

That's the way business go

Bdtrngl

Womp womp.

MamboGator