Xbox Parent Microsoft Interested In Buying Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment

Add Xbox parent company Microsoft to the interested buyers for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

After first being reportedly up for sale last month, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, the games division behind the “Mortal Kombat” series and the “Batman: Arkham Knight” series, has been generating prospective buyers. These include Electronic Arts, Take-Two, and Activision Blizzard.

Based on a CNBC report in June, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment parent company AT&T was looking to generate around $4 billion to pay off some of its substantial debt. A new report published on Monday from The Information cites sources familiar with the situation to indicate that a new player has joined the ones interested in a takeover, namely, Microsoft reports Video Games Chronicle.

Even if a sale goes through though, many of the Warner Bros. IP tied to developmental games such as “Harry Potter” and “Batman” would not be part of the deal but could be licensed.

Before E3 was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment reportedly had big announcements lined up for their first press conference at the annual event. These included a new “Batman” title, an open-world “Harry Potter” game, and the next project from “Arkham” developer Rocksteady Studios.

Among the companies under the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment umbrella are NetherRealm (which develops “Mortal Kombat”), TT Games (developers of “LEGO”), Monolith (developers of “Middle-Earth: Shadow of War”), as well as internal studios based in Montreal, Boston, New York, and San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Video Games Chronicle reports that Xbox has aggressively expanded its portfolio of first-party studios for the past two years in anticipation of the holiday 2020 release of the Xbox Series X.

As well as setting up The Initiative and a new “Age of Empires” studio, Xbox acquired Ninja Theory (developers of “Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice”), Playground (developers of the “Forza Horizon” series), Obsidian (developers of “Fallout: New Vegas”), InXile (developers of “Wasteland 3”) and Double Fine (“Psychonauts 2” developers).

Despite the November 2019 statement of Xbox Game Studios boss Matt Booty that Xbox was “shifting focus” from studio acquisitions, the various intellectual property and games in the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment portfolio might be too delicious a meal to refuse.