Video Game Sales Slide At Warner Bros.


Media giant Time Warner–which operates video game, TV, and movie units–today reported earnings for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2016. Video game revenue was down year-over-year, but the company overall saw sales increase by 4 percent to $29.3 billion.

Time Warner’s Warner Bros. division, which includes movies, TV, and games, saw flat revenue at $13 billion. The company’s movie and TV revenues rose year-over-year, thanks to new releases like Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Fantastic Beasts, but was offset by lower video game sales.

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Warner Bros. explained that it had a tough comparison for video games, as the same period last year benefited from major games like Mortal Kombat X and Batman: Arkham Knight. By comparison, Warner Bros.’ 2016 slate included Lego Marvel’s Avengers, Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, Batman: Arkham VR, and Batman: Return to Arkham.

Operating income for the Warner Bros. division rose 22 percent to $1.7 billion. Warner Bros. noted that its big box office haul and the $90 million sale of Flixster was more than enough to offset the lower video game revenue.

Some high-profile upcoming Warner Bros. games include Injustice 2 and the console versions of Lego Worlds and Lego City Undercover. The company is also developing a new Cars 3 game with Disney, while a new Batman game starring Damian Wayne is reportedly in the works.

Time Warner’s HBO division saw its revenue rise 5 percent to $5.9 billion, helped by subscription revenue jumping 5 percent. Time Warner called out Game of Thrones, Veep, Last Week Tonight, and Westworld in its earnings report. It added that the sixth season of Game of Thrones averaged almost 26 million viewers, making it the most-watched series ever for HBO. Westworld averaged 13 million viewers to set a new first-season record.

You can read Time Warner’s full earnings report here.

Time Warner is just the latest to report earnings in recent weeks. Check out the stories below to see how other companies are doing; Activision, Ubisoft, and Nvidia report earnings on February 9.