Warner Bros Announces a Huge Restructure: Will Focus on These 4 Fan-Favorite Franchises

Warner Bros. Games is shaking things up in a big way. The company just announced a major restructuring, and from now on, it’s going all in on four major franchises: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and the DC Universe.

The news comes from Variety, which reports that the studio behind Hogwarts Legacy has set up a brand-new leadership team to handle game development, production, and tech operations. Instead of organizing things the usual way, they’re now building everything around these four big franchises.

A few key people are stepping into bigger roles. Yves Lachance, who was running Warner Bros. Games Montréal, has been promoted to senior vice president of development. He’ll now be in charge of teams working on Harry Potter and Game of Thrones games. Shaun Himmerick from NetherRealm is also moving up to a senior VP role.

He’ll lead development on the Mortal Kombat and DC games. And Steven Flenory, head of the New York studio, is now senior vice president of central tech and services. He’ll be in charge of everything from game tech and publishing tools to customer service and testing.

All three of them will report to J.B. Perrette, who is the CEO of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery. Basically, Perrette is now the top boss for the whole gaming division, and the teams working on games will report to either Lachance or Himmerick, depending on the franchise. Perrette will still be in charge of the publishing side too.

This shakeup didn’t come with any layoffs, and no executives are leaving because of it. This change follows the January exit of David Haddad, the former head of Warner Bros. Games. It’s not clear yet if this new setup replaces him permanently or if they’re still looking for someone to take on that role.

This news comes about a month after Warner Bros. shared its financial results for the first quarter of the year. In that report, the company said that money made from games dropped by 48% (not counting changes in foreign currency).

It also said that gaming costs went down by 66% compared to the same time last year. That big drop was mostly because of losses from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and lower game sales overall.

Earlier in the year, Warner Bros. made some tough decisions. They canceled their Wonder Woman game and shut down Monolith, the studio behind Shadow of Mordor. Reports say they lost around $200 million on Suicide Squad, and then another $100 million on games like MultiVersus and Quidditch Champions, which didn’t do as well as expected.

This all ties into a bigger change happening at Warner Bros. Discovery. Back on June 9, the company announced it’s splitting into two parts: WBD Streaming & Studios, which will be led by David Zaslav, and WBD Global Networks, run by CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels. The games division will fall under the streaming and studios part, and that split should be done by mid-2026.

The new focus on franchises isn’t just happening in games. Warner Bros. has already been doing the same thing with its movie and TV studios.

“Our company is home to some of the biggest franchises in the world, and we are optimizing our team structure to develop long-term franchise roadmaps to delight players and fans of Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC games,” said Perrette.

“We are very fortunate to have a strong stable of development and technology talent, and Yves, Shaun and Steven are respected leaders with excellent track records in their areas of expertise. I’m looking forward to working closely with them and the team as we work to make the best games possible for our key franchises.”

So from here on out, Warner Bros. Games is betting everything on the power of its biggest worlds, magic, superheroes, brutal fighters, and dragons.

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