COMMENT – Warner warms up

Initial stirrings and speculation about what kind of strategy the company may have is going to gradually clear, leaving a serious player which wants to invest in this business and grab a significant share over the next five years.

That ambition is most vivid when it sets out an objective of $1 billion in games revenues within five years. And the first steps on that long path are currently being taken.

Chris Meredith arrived this week as vice president of games in Europe. Other looming announcements will help the advance, whilst the first Euro stab at self-publishing in November will be a useful testbed.

Clearly, Warner will not look to unsettle existing licensees, or change any utilisation of a property which is already successful or has some way to go in contractual terms.

But there is certainly a lot of IP in this organisation, plus a big sales and distribution resource thanks to its existing entertainment businesses, and a real desire to become a friend of developers and establish new IP.

The story is just beginning.