There are only a couple of reasons why a CEO would become a name well known across the user base of his companies, and both are reasons of great concern for any shareholder that has interest in their investments actually going somewhere. Either that CEO had done something so egregious to warrant the mainstream media to drag their name publicly through the mud before a ousting can be done, or our man is responsible for so many bad decisions that their name becomes shorthand for screwing up. Zaslav is currently going through the latter arc right now, popping up as the fault behind many strange direction choices for the Warner Bros. conglomerate that one has to genuinely wonder whether or not the man isn't a corporate spy sent specifically to ruin the future prospects of Warner Bros from the inside before he can be caught out and canned. Hell, I believe the conspiracy on this one!
David Zaslav is probably best know in the world of movies currently, for the way that under his rule Warner Bros has become a graveyard for creative projects to such an extent that future distributor searchers are backlisting the company. Which, naturally, is a pretty bad state of affairs for the longterm growth of a company built around the entertainment industry! But how else do you expect people to react to the fact that Warner Bros. has allowed the development of two movies to reach fruition only to cancel them before distribution for what we only assume are tax purposes. The Batgirl movie was originally said to be 'too bad to be seen', but I think it's pretty clear that was merely an excuse to get away with it since 'Coyote Vs Acme' met with the same fate- and that one was a critical darling around the preview circuit- and yet it died all the same.
What lesson does this teach us? That properties aren't safe under the provision of Zaslav and his squad of goons who will happily quash creative works for the slightest smidge of profit. And sure, that's not exactly a rare trait in the corporate world, but boy does Zazzy apply a certain aplomp to his work that truly cannot be rivalled. It takes a special kind of delusional to be the leader of an entertainment company brand and think you can actively make hostile moves towards every creative alive without any substantive backlash upon your bottom line. But it takes a truly brave and powerful man to admit when they're wrong and go back on their stance, and Zaslav strikes me as a bit more of a cowardly cretin- what do you think? Certainly no 'industry hero'.
But where does the Warner Bros. conglomerate intersect with games, I hear you plea! Well, wouldn't you know that for a good many years one of the largely forgotten about side-projects of the Warner Bros. world was their video game development department whom they simply funnelled money towards and allowed to do their thing. That largely hands-off direction from management allowed for the collation of a quite talented team who put together and helped publish genuine powerhouses of the gaming world. The Arkham games, The Shadow Of Mordor titles- heck, they even helped publish Hitman 2! Real, genuine games! And because this side of Warner Bros. made a tidy profit, it never aroused the attention of the higher-ups and thus was permitted to continue prioritising their good work. That all changed last year.
Not because some great downturn ruined the studio and has the gaming division put up on the chopping block, mind you! We're not in the 'Disney' era wherein the company are too desperately afraid of over-investing in another industry that will soon grow sick of them and thus they refuse to get involved outside of licensing management. We're currently in the 'post Hogwarts Legacy' world- wherein a Warner Bros. video game became such a phenom that it was the best selling game of last year, despite not getting a nomination for a single award. That is the kind of activity that will catch the eyes of management, and that has been the catalyst sparking little Zaslav's descent into video game industry infamy- a whole new frontier of distaste!
Because yes, not even one year after the release of Hogwarts Legacy, a single player slamdunk that flew across the world accruing a stupid amount of traction and player numbers- Zaslav has decided he wants to start leaning into the video game world a bit more whilst learning none of the lessons taught to him. Single player game made money? Of course that means there should be a hard push for Live Services! Yes, this idiot decided to make himself an 'expert in the field' and missed out just about every single bit of usable momentum that the Portkey Games team handed his way. At very least he knows to take better advantage of the properties under his belt which means we may finally get a Game of Thrones game- only several years after the series has lost the majority of it's popularity- not a moment too soon!
Of course, any intelligent mind taking a look at the trend of the industry would know it absolutely insane to start getting into Live Services now. Those who are currently locked in on the train typically started the journey years ago when this was looking like the future of the industry, but following a plethora of high budget disasters, one of which is playing out under the Warner Bros. brand right now- conventional knowledge would be to think a bit harder about this direction. But Zaslav isn't the kind of mind of runs on conventional knowledge. Zaslav has the kind of thought process that runs parallel to the Du Pont approach, threatening total self harm to himself and everyone around him if he can't magically manifest the ends that he wants.
You may think I talk a lot about Live Services on this blog, particularly lately, and the fact is that I do- but it's only in response to the absolute torrent of new Live Service adjacent ideas that are raised like battle standards every other week despite overwhelming evidence that is a battle already fought and lost. When companies come to their investors with their tails between their legs complaining about the rising costs of development, they often leave out the fact they wasted several tens of millions chasing pipe-dream Live Service games in an oversaturated market that isn't even currently healthy for most of the already established entries. These people are gambling away their money on frivolous crap and then passing those costs onto the consumer- I just need to make sure everyone is aware of the grift that makes up this industry nowadays. Because it's only going to scale ever worse.
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