Netflix is buying Warner Bros for approximately $82.7 billion, a deal that includes Warner Bros Discovery's video games division and would put Rocksteady, NetherRealm, Avalanche and TT Games under the streaming company's ownership. Netflix formally announced the acquisition today, having outbid both Comcast and Paramount Skydance.

The deal covers the film and streaming business of Warner Bros Discovery. According to the company's own investor presentation from July 2025, that business includes the games division — meaning Netflix would become the direct owner of four of the industry's best-known studios if regulators approve the transaction.

When will the deal actually close?

Not immediately. The sale is structured to complete after Warner Bros Discovery spins off Discovery Global into a separate publicly-traded company. That spin-off is expected in Q3 2026, putting the closing date at or before September 30th, 2026 — more than a year away, and contingent on regulatory approval.

The path to this deal has been long. Warner Bros Discovery was formed in April 2022 through the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery. Reports emerged in June 2024 that CEO David Zaslav was exploring a break-up of the company, and the split was officially announced in December of that year.

What does Netflix get in games terms?

For the games industry, the headline is studio ownership. Rocksteady (Batman: Arkham, Suicide Squad), NetherRealm (Mortal Kombat), Avalanche (Hogwarts Legacy) and TT Games (LEGO titles) all sit inside the division Netflix is acquiring.

Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos said: "Our mission has always been to entertain the world. By combining Warner Bros.' incredible library of shows and movies – from timeless classics like Casablanca and Citizen Kane to modern favourites like Harry Potter and Friends – with our culture-defining titles like Stranger Things, KPop Demon Hunters and Squid Game, we'll be able to do that even better."

Zaslav framed the deal in similar terms: "Today's announcement combines two of the greatest storytelling companies in the world to bring to even more people the entertainment they love to watch the most."

Why is Warner Bros selling a games business it just restructured?

The games division has been a persistent underperformer for Warner Bros Discovery. After the outsized success of Hogwarts Legacy in 2023, the division shipped the heavily loss-making Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which drove a 41% revenue decline in one quarter. In November 2024, Warner Bros Discovery described the division as "substantially underperforming."

The fallout was swift:

• Long-time Warner Bros Games president David Haddad stepped down in January 2025
• In February 2025, the company closed Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros San Diego, calling the closures a "strategic change in direction"
• In June 2025, the games arm was restructured around four core properties: Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat and DC Comics, with three studio heads promoted

That restructuring now hands Netflix a portfolio already narrowed to Warner Bros' strongest IP — a leaner asset than the division was two years ago.

How does this fit Netflix's existing games strategy?

Netflix already operates its own games business, but it has been trimming. Over the past year the company has made studio and job cuts in the division, including shutting a California game studio. Most recently, Netflix sold Spry Fox back to the studio's founders — a reversal of its November 2022 acquisition of the developer, which had been its sixth internal studio.

The Warner Bros acquisition inverts that retrenchment. Rather than building a mobile-focused, subscription-bundled games offering studio by studio, Netflix would overnight gain AAA development capacity, major fighting-game and comic-book franchises, and the studio behind one of the decade's biggest single-player hits.

The open question is operational: how Netflix's leadership integrates four large studios with a live-service and console portfolio that Warner Bros itself had struggled to make profitable — and whether the streaming company retains the recently promoted studio heads running the four-pillar strategy.

What to watch next

The regulatory approval process and the Discovery Global spin-off, expected in Q3 2026, are the two milestones that will determine whether Netflix actually takes control of Rocksteady, NetherRealm, Avalanche and TT Games — and how it chooses to run them.