Netflix appears to be moving toward completing its $82.7 billion Warner Bros. acquisition, even as Paramount has floated a competing $100.7 billion bid. Why are these media giants so intent on knocking each other down over the studio? Spoiler: it isn’t because of Warner Bros. Games.
During an investor call, Netflix co-CEO Gregory Peters said that, while Warner Bros. had done some “great work in the game space,” “we actually didn’t attribute any value to that from the get-go because they’re relatively minor compared to the grand scheme of things.”
It sounds harsh, but it’s hard to argue. Warner Bros. Games scored a massive hit with the 2023 action-RPG Hogwarts Legacy — over 30 million units sold and one of the best-selling single-player titles ever — yet one blockbuster alone doesn’t bankroll a studio’s future. In 2025 the publisher moved to triple down on its biggest, most mainstream IP (Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC), but there’s been little to show publicly so far.
“Now we are super excited because some of those properties that they’ve built, Hogwarts is a great example of that, have been done quite well, and we think that we can incorporate that into what we’re offering.”
Gregory Peters
Netflix already runs its own slate of games (with mixed results), so a Warner tie-up would give the streamer access to “great studios and great folks working there. So we think that there’s definitely an opportunity there. But just to be clear, we haven’t built that into our deal model.”
The release of Hogwarts Legacy has been the subject of criticism and debate due to J.K. Rowling’s public stance on gender identity, which continues to challenge the inclusivity at the heart of the Harry Potter community. Here is our explainer on the Hogwarts Legacy controversy.