Square Enix is reportedly looking to sell off stakes in some of its wholly-owned owned development studios, and has said that Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal were sold because they "cannibalized" from the wider group.

Reported by games industry analyst David Gibson out of Square Enix's latest earnings call, the publisher reportedly sees the unexpected sale of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal as 'Phase 1' of its changes to the business.

Phase 2 will apparently see Square Enix reviewing its portfolio of owned studios, deciding whether to retain full ownership, or allow other companies to buy stakes in those businesses. Per Gibson, the benefit of this would be to allow Square Enix to move resources around between studios more easily, with the view apparently towards being able to allocate "resources mainly to Japan titles."

Gibson expects the likes of Sony, Tencent and Nexon to be interested in purchasing pieces of Square Enix's studios, and management once again expressed interest in acquiring new developers to increase its portfolio.

The call reportedly also saw Square Enix explain that it made the decision to sell of its high-profile western developers because the likes of Crystal Dynamics "cannibalized" from the rest of the group, seemingly making resources harder to allocate across the whole development portfolio – presumably due to high development costs on the likes of Marvel's Avengers.

IGN has contacted Square Enix for a statement on these announcements.

Square Enix's remaining development studios include its four Creative Business Units (which make the likes of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and the recent 'HD-2D' line of game), Luminous Productions (Forspoken), Tokyo RPG Factory (I Am Setsuna), Square Enix London Mobile (Tomb Raider Reloaded), and more.

Like the majority of gaming companies post-pandemic, Square Enix's latest earnings saw net sales for its gaming segment fall year-on-year, although the incredibly successful Final Fantasy 14 once again bucked trends by seeing net sales rise, due to increased numbers of monthly subscribers.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Square Enix is reportedly looking to sell off stakes in some of its wholly-owned owned development studios, and has said that Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Montréal were sold because they "cannibalized" from the wider group.

Reported by games industry analyst David Gibson out of Square Enix's latest earnings call, the publisher reportedly sees the unexpected sale of Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montréal, and Square Enix Montréal as 'Phase 1' of its changes to the business.

Phase 2 will apparently see Square Enix reviewing its portfolio of owned studios, deciding whether to retain full ownership, or allow other companies to buy stakes in those businesses. Per Gibson, the benefit of this would be to allow Square Enix to move resources around between studios more easily, with the view apparently towards being able to allocate "resources mainly to Japan titles."

Gibson expects the likes of Sony, Tencent and Nexon to be interested in purchasing pieces of Square Enix's studios, and management once again expressed interest in acquiring new developers to increase its portfolio.

The call reportedly also saw Square Enix explain that it made the decision to sell of its high-profile western developers because the likes of Crystal Dynamics "cannibalized" from the rest of the group, seemingly making resources harder to allocate across the whole development portfolio – presumably due to high development costs on the likes of Marvel's Avengers.

IGN has contacted Square Enix for a statement on these announcements.

Square Enix's remaining development studios include its four Creative Business Units (which make the likes of Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, and the recent 'HD-2D' line of game), Luminous Productions (Forspoken), Tokyo RPG Factory (I Am Setsuna), Square Enix London Mobile (Tomb Raider Reloaded), and more.

Like the majority of gaming companies post-pandemic, Square Enix's latest earnings saw net sales for its gaming segment fall year-on-year, although the incredibly successful Final Fantasy 14 once again bucked trends by seeing net sales rise, due to increased numbers of monthly subscribers.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Batgirl's stunning cancellation sent shockwaves through the film world, but Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is making no apologies for the decision.

"We're not going to release any film before it's ready. We're not going to release a film to make a quarter, we're not going to release a film — the focus is going to be, how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible. But DC is something that we think we could make better, and we're focused on it now," Zaslav said during today's quarterly earning call.

Zaslav says that it's part of a "10 year plan" for DC in which Warner Bros. Discovery hopes to create a structure similar to the one "put together very effectively by Kevin Feige at Disney."

"We think that we could build a long-term, much stronger sustainable growth business out of DC. And as part of that, we're going to focus on quality," Zaslav said, alluding to reports that Batgirl was axed because test audiences reacted poorly to the film, though other sources have said that it was mainly a move intended to recoup some of the money spent on the movie through taxes.

On why Batgirl wasn't shifted directly to HBO Max, Zaslav said Warner Bros. Discovery has "looked hard at the direct-to-streaming business," but there "is no comparison to what happens when you launch a film in the theaters."

"This idea of expensive films going direct to streaming: we cannot find an economic case for it. We cannot find an economic value for it. So we're making a strategic shift...Our focus will be on the theatrical," Zaslav said.

Batgirl's cancellation earlier this week signaled a seismic shift within Warner Bros., triggering wild speculation about the company's intentions for HBO Max and beyond, with reports suggesting that Supergirl could be in trouble as well.

Meanwhile, Batgirl star Leslie Grace thanked fans on Instagram, saying, "Thank you for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, 'My own damn hero.'"

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Batgirl's stunning cancellation sent shockwaves through the film world, but Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav is making no apologies for the decision.

"We're not going to release any film before it's ready. We're not going to release a film to make a quarter, we're not going to release a film — the focus is going to be, how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible. But DC is something that we think we could make better, and we're focused on it now," Zaslav said during today's quarterly earning call.

Zaslav says that it's part of a "10 year plan" for DC in which Warner Bros. Discovery hopes to create a structure similar to the one "put together very effectively by Kevin Feige at Disney."

"We think that we could build a long-term, much stronger sustainable growth business out of DC. And as part of that, we're going to focus on quality," Zaslav said, alluding to reports that Batgirl was axed because test audiences reacted poorly to the film, though other sources have said that it was mainly a move intended to recoup some of the money spent on the movie through taxes.

On why Batgirl wasn't shifted directly to HBO Max, Zaslav said Warner Bros. Discovery has "looked hard at the direct-to-streaming business," but there "is no comparison to what happens when you launch a film in the theaters."

"This idea of expensive films going direct to streaming: we cannot find an economic case for it. We cannot find an economic value for it. So we're making a strategic shift...Our focus will be on the theatrical," Zaslav said.

Batgirl's cancellation earlier this week signaled a seismic shift within Warner Bros., triggering wild speculation about the company's intentions for HBO Max and beyond, with reports suggesting that Supergirl could be in trouble as well.

Meanwhile, Batgirl star Leslie Grace thanked fans on Instagram, saying, "Thank you for the love and belief, allowing me to take on the cape and become, as Babs said best, 'My own damn hero.'"

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s ideas for its DC movies are becoming a little clearer after CEO David Zaslav announced there will be a codified plan for the future of DC movies.

As part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s quarterly financials, CEO David Zaslav took the stage to answer questions about the company’s future, particularly in light of the news that it was canceling Batgirl despite the movie being mostly finished.

Rather than announce any kind of retreat for DC movies, Zaslav instead says the company has done a “reset” and will follow a ten-year plan just for DC that will be similar to what Disney and Kevin Feige have done for Marvel.

“We have done a reset. We’ve restructured the business where we’re going to focus, where there will be a team with a ten-year plan focusing just on DC,” Zaslav said. “It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney.”

Zaslav says the hope is to “build a long-term, much stronger sustainable growth business out of DC,” and that the company is going to focus on quality over quantity.

“We’re not going to release any film before it’s ready. We’re not going to release a film to make a quarter, we’re not going to release a film — the focus is going to be ‘how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible?’”

The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO cited films already in the works like Black Adam, Shazam, and Flash as films the company are all very excited about. “We’ve seen them. We think they’re terrific, and we think we can make them even better.”

There were plenty of questions as to the future of DC movies after it was announced Batgirl would not be released in theaters or HBO Max. The film, which cost $90 million, already finished filming and had a cast that included Leslie Grace, JK Simmons, Brendan Fraser, and Michael Keaton.

HBO Max also began quietly removing other movies from its streaming service, sparking concerns the studio would be backing away from original, scripted content. But Zaslav has cited DC — particularly characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman — as pillars of the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery.

And reports say that Zaslav and co. will be focusing on marquis characters like Superman, as well as Joker which announced a release date for the sequel, Joker Folie A Deux with Lady Gaga joining the cast.

While time will tell what Warner Bros. Discovery’s ten-year plan for DC will look like, the company is standing behind its existing theatrical releases like Shazam, Aquaman, and The Flash which will figure into the company’s plans somehow.

Elsewhere in the financials, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it will be merging HBO Max and Discovery+ into a new streaming service that will be released in summer 2023.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s ideas for its DC movies are becoming a little clearer after CEO David Zaslav announced there will be a codified plan for the future of DC movies.

As part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s quarterly financials, CEO David Zaslav took the stage to answer questions about the company’s future, particularly in light of the news that it was canceling Batgirl despite the movie being mostly finished.

Rather than announce any kind of retreat for DC movies, Zaslav instead says the company has done a “reset” and will follow a ten-year plan just for DC that will be similar to what Disney and Kevin Feige have done for Marvel.

“We have done a reset. We’ve restructured the business where we’re going to focus, where there will be a team with a ten-year plan focusing just on DC,” Zaslav said. “It’s very similar to the structure that Alan Horn and Bob Iger put together very effectively with Kevin Feige at Disney.”

Zaslav says the hope is to “build a long-term, much stronger sustainable growth business out of DC,” and that the company is going to focus on quality over quantity.

“We’re not going to release any film before it’s ready. We’re not going to release a film to make a quarter, we’re not going to release a film — the focus is going to be ‘how do we make each of these films, in general, as good as possible?’”

The Warner Bros. Discovery CEO cited films already in the works like Black Adam, Shazam, and Flash as films the company are all very excited about. “We’ve seen them. We think they’re terrific, and we think we can make them even better.”

There were plenty of questions as to the future of DC movies after it was announced Batgirl would not be released in theaters or HBO Max. The film, which cost $90 million, already finished filming and had a cast that included Leslie Grace, JK Simmons, Brandon Fraser, and Michael Keaton.

HBO Max also began quietly removing other movies from its streaming service, sparking concerns the studio would be backing away from original, scripted content. But Zaslav has cited DC — particularly characters like Batman, Wonder Woman, and Superman — as pillars of the newly formed Warner Bros. Discovery.

And reports say that Zaslav and co. will be focusing on marquis characters like Superman, as well as Joker which announced a release date for the sequel, Joker Folie A Deux with Lady Gaga joining the cast.

While time will tell what Warner Bros. Discovery’s ten-year plan for DC will look like, the company is standing behind its existing theatrical releases like Shazam, Aquaman, and The Flash which will figure into the company’s plans somehow.

Elsewhere in the financials, Warner Bros. Discovery announced it will be merging HBO Max and Discovery+ into a new streaming service that will be released in summer 2023.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Warner Bros. Discovery, the hulking monster born of the recent merger between Discovery Inc. and AT&T's WarnerMedia, has unveiled an outline of its plans to merge its HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services in the next year. Per the company's earnings call, we can expect them to smash together into their new form in the summer of 2023.

The rollout will begin in the US in the summer, followed by Latin America later in the year, European markets that have HBO Max already in early 2024, followed by more launches later that year. It's not yet known what they're calling this new service, but at one point in the call we heard some significant hints that it may not include "HBO" in the title.

Though pricing for the new merged service has not yet been shared, we did learn that for now, the company is going to focus on ad-supported and ad-free versions of its new service. But down the line, it also intends to explore options in the "free, ad-supported space."

And it also sounds like at least some users might get hit with price increases, too. Without giving numbers, we were told that the company is "shifting away" from heavily-discounted promotions, and that it's planning price increases "particularly in certain international regions where we are well below market," as well as periodic price increases over time.

Later on the call, when asked about a migration plan for subscribers of the cheaper Discovery+ service, we heard that WarnerMedia Discovery is planning to give some sort of transition period for lower-priced subscribers to move up, but at some point will have to ensure subscribers move to the "inevitable higher price point" in a "relatively short period" of time.

With over 92 million subscribers currently, WarnerMedia Discovery is expecting that these, along with a number of other strategic changes, will push it to 130 total subscribers worldwide by 2025, while it also works to seemingly cut costs by putting multiple projects on the chopping block and potentially laying off employees.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Warner Bros. Discovery, the hulking monster born of the recent merger between Discovery Inc. and AT&T's WarnerMedia, has unveiled an outline of its plans to merge its HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services in the next year. Per the company's earnings call, we can expect them to smash together into their new form in the summer of 2023.

The rollout will begin in the US in the summer, followed by Latin America later int he year, European markets that have HBO Max already in early 2024, followed by more launches later that year. It's not yet known what they're calling this new service, but at one point in the call we heard some significant hints that it may not include "HBO" in the title.

Though pricing for the new merged service has not yet been shared, we did learn that for now, the company is going to focus on ad-supported and ad-free versions of its new service. But down the line, it also intends to explore options in the "free, ad-supported space."

And it also sounds like at least some users might get hit with price increases, too. Without giving numbers, we were told that the company is "shifting away" from heavily-discounted promotions, and that it's planning price increases "particularly in certain international regions where we are well below market," as well as periodic price increases over time.

Later on the call, when asked about a migration plan for subscribers of the cheaper Discovery+ service, we heard that WarnerMedia Discovery is planning to give some sort of transition period for lower-priced subscribers to move up, but at some point will have to ensure subscribers move to the "inevitable higher price point" in a "relatively short period" of time.

With over 92 million subscribers currently, WarnerMedia Discovery is expecting that these, along with a number of other strategic changes, will push it to 130 total subscribers worldwide by 2025, while it also works to seemingly cut costs by putting multiple projects on the chopping block and potentially laying off employees.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Seth Rogen’s upcoming movie following the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has an official title and a new release date. The CG-animated film will be titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and will be released one year from today on August 4, 2023.

The film’s new release date comes a full week earlier than the one Rogen announced last summer. There is also a new logo for the film featuring artwork that seems to embrace its comic book roots.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is in theaters one year from today!!!!! pic.twitter.com/bm1jVyawa6

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 4, 2022

Rogen, who is producing, has said in the past that the film will more heavily embrace the “teenage” aspect of the film’s leads.The film, which was first announced in 2020, is being produced by Point Grey Pictures, Rogen’s production company alongside Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Paramount Pictures will distribute.

The movie will be the first in new media surrounding the TMNT universe. Nickelodeon expects to follow Mutant Mayhem up with a series of films following the villains of the franchise, though Nickelodeon specifies that these spinoffs aren’t related to Rogen’s reboot and are meant to be part of a larger plan for TMNT.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been around since the early 1980s where it first came about as an indie comic book series. Since, it has been made into several cartoons, movies, and video games.

Most recently, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge released to much fanfare from fans. We gave it an 8/10 in our review and said “its fun, yet simple gameplay, excellent coop for up to six players online, and charming pixel-based art style will surely have 90s kids riding the wave of nostalgia all the way to its end.”

Casey is a freelance writer for IGN. You can usually find him talking about JRPGs on Twitter at @caseydavidmt.

Seth Rogen’s upcoming movie following the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has an official title and a new release date. The CG-animated film will be titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem and will be released one year from today on August 4, 2023.

The film’s new release date comes a full week earlier than the one Rogen announced last summer. There is also a new logo for the film featuring artwork that seems to embrace its comic book roots.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is in theaters one year from today!!!!! pic.twitter.com/bm1jVyawa6

— Seth Rogen (@Sethrogen) August 4, 2022

Rogen, who is producing, has said in the past that the film will more heavily embrace the “teenage” aspect of the film’s leads.The film, which was first announced in 2020, is being produced by Point Grey Pictures, Rogen’s production company alongside Nickelodeon Animation Studio. Paramount Pictures will distribute.

The movie will be the first in new media surrounding the TMNT universe. Nickelodeon expects to follow Mutant Mayhem up with a series of films following the villains of the franchise, though Nickelodeon specifies that these spinoffs aren’t related to Rogen’s reboot and are meant to be part of a larger plan for TMNT.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has been around since the early 1980s where it first came about as an indie comic book series. Since, it has been made into several cartoons, movies, and video games.

Most recently, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge released to much fanfare from fans. We gave it an 8/10 in our review and said “its fun, yet simple gameplay, excellent coop for up to six players online, and charming pixel-based art style will surely have 90s kids riding the wave of nostalgia all the way to its end.”

Casey is a freelance writer for IGN. You can usually find him talking about JRPGs on Twitter at @caseydavidmt.