Active Reload: A Video Game Podcast · Sheridan Media

Netflix/Paramount Buying Warner Brothers What's It Mean for Games? Game Awards Reveal Predictions!

·1 hr 22 min·5 clips

The hosts frame Netflix's Warner Brothers bid as a deal that will affect video games, not just movies.

1. Active Reload episode 116 focuses on Netflix's reported Warner Brothers purchase and the effect it could have on video games. 2. The hosts, who are the show's regular video game commentators, use the deal to compare movie IP, game studios, and platform strategy. 3. The episode asks whether Netflix's expansion means more quality game adaptations or just another corporate cash grab. 4. The discussion opens with a reported $87.9 billion Warner Brothers price tag and the idea that DC, Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, Rocksteady, Avalanche, and TT Studios could all fall under Netflix influence. 5. The hosts mention that the deal may face litigation, a hostile takeover fight, and possibly antitrust scrutiny before any ownership changes happen. 6. Netflix's prior gaming efforts come up repeatedly, including streaming ambitions, produced games that never launched, and comparisons to Google Stadia and Amazon Luna. 7. The hosts contrast Netflix's failures with its better game-adjacent work on Arcane and Castlevania. 8. The conversation then turns to the risk of committees and centralized control affecting projects like Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and Hogwarts Legacy. 9. They say Hogwarts Legacy exceeded expectations and note that it runs on the original Switch, which they describe as being on sale for $8. 10. The episode also references The Witcher, Henry Cavill's departure, and the hosts' complaint that creative control shifted away from creators. 11. One memorable point is the hosts calling Netflix 'a really bad buffet' and saying it is the definition of 'quantity over quality.' 12. Another memorable point is the argument that Netflix's DVD-by-mail era trained the company to keep a massive amount of content available at all times. 13. Jeff Keighley's Fortnite map post becomes the setup for a Tomb Raider reveal at the Game Awards. 14. The hosts quote Keighley's line that the audience should tune in Thursday night for 'the future of one of gaming's most iconic franchises, Tomb Raider.' 15. They debate whether a new Tomb Raider should stay close to the reboot trilogy or move back toward a more grounded treasure-hunt style. 16. They also talk about how the reboot trilogy's titles, Tomb Raider, Rise of the Tomb Raider, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider, were awkward to search and organize. 17. The tone is informal and fast-moving, with a lot of interruptions, corrections, and side references to older games. 18. The format is a two-host conversation that moves from industry news into franchise predictions without a formal interview structure. 19. People who follow Xbox, PlayStation, Warner Brothers, and Game Awards reveals should get a lot out of it. 20. Listeners who want tightly focused analysis without game-franchise detours may skip it.

As heard by us

A licensing shakeup and awards guesses, handled like friends arguing at the table.

The episode treats the Warner Brothers buyout as more than a studio story, and that angle works. It moves cleanly from DC and Harry Potter into the messier history of Tomb Raider and Deus Ex, which gives the licensing stakes some weight.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

You want the Netflix-Warner Brothers deal fallout and the video game ripple effects without the corporate gloss.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

Listen to the show on

Apple Podcasts Spotify

Play clips from this episode More from Active Reload: A Video Game Podcast