Warner’s Latest Cost Cutting Could Doom the Ingenious Nemesis System
Lost to history.
Warner Bros. Discovery isn’t just in the movie and TV business, it also operates a pretty successful gaming division. Warner owns the video game rights to such franchises as Lord of the Rings, Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter, and DC Comics, along with a handful of studios like Arkham developer Rocksteady Studios. But now, it looks like that gaming division could be the latest target of the company’s continued quest to cut costs by any means necessary.
According to a report from Financial Times, Warner chief executive David Zaslav and chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels are “looking to offload” smaller assets. This includes “a stake” in the company’s video games business. It’s hard to know exactly what that means, but the terminology used suggests Warner could sell pieces of its video game divisions, which might include specific studios or properties, or simply large stakes in either of those.
After the runaway success of Hogwarts Legacy, it’s seems unlikely Warner Bros will want to offload Harry Potter video games.
This is all very worrisome considering the company’s history over the last few years, canceling multiple TV and film projects, and interest in selling off nearly $500 million in assets. It’s hard to imagine video games taking priority amid all of that, especially when the Financial Times report suggests it's seen as a smaller asset.
This feels like a bad omen during an already turbulent time in the industry at large, but there’s another casualty that could quietly suffer from this as well: Shadow of Mordor’s ingenious Nemesis System. As sales happen and IP changes hands, some things will inevitably fall through the cracks, and the Nemesis System seems like an incredibly likely candidate.
The Nemesis System first debuted with the 2014 release of Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s a dynamic randomized system that allows players to create rivalries with specific enemies. Through simulation elements, the game created unique personalities and a hierarchy system for orcs. Your interaction with specific characters can turn them into a Nemesis.
The Nemesis System’s simulation elements made the Shadow games feel rich and dynamic, in a way unlike anything we’d seen before.
For example, some orc grunt you eliminate might barely survive, nurture a grudge against you, and then climb through the ranks to become a captain, all with the intent to take revenge. The Nemesis System made Shadow of Mordor’s world feel alive, bringing your enemies to life with fascinating personalities and character arcs, and an experience that was different for every player.
As ingenious as this system was, however, it’s only ever been used in one other game... the sequel. In 2021, Warner Bros secured a patent for the Nemesis System, which gave the company could have exclusive rights to it until roughly 2035. That’s why we’ve never seen something similar used in another game. Anything veering too close to the Nemesis System could be infringing on that patent.
In 2021 Monolith announced a new Wonder Woman game, featuring the Nemesis System, but details have been scant ever since.
The developer behind the Shadow games, Monolith Productions, is currently using the Nemesis System on its upcoming Wonder Woman game, but that title was announced in 2021 and we’ve yet to see even a single detail from the project.
As WB looks to sell off various pieces of its video game portfolio, it’s easy to see a situation where the Nemesis System gets forgotten entirely. If Wonder Woman is hitting any kind of development problem, that could be even more the case. It’s an incredible shame that we’ve missed out on the innovation the Nemesis System could have given the industry at large. How many teams could have put their own unique interpretation on it? How many games could be richer for it?
It’s starting to feel like the only way we might ever see the Nemesis System again is if WB decides to sell the patent or license it out to anyone interested. But a more likely outcome feels like the company will sell off multiple gaming assets, forget it exists, and let the Nemesis System languish until the rights run out. But this is one case where I genuinely hope I’m wrong.
