AT&T announced earlier today a $43 billion deal to separate Warner Media and merge it with Discovery, and according to IGN, the deal will also impact the video game scene.

While most of IGN's summary focuses on the video aspect of the deal, AT&T also told the site that some, but not all, of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment will be sold. Details of how it will be split up have not been disclosed, but WBIE itself, NetherRealm, Monolith, Avalanche, Rocksteady, and TT Games in San Diego, Boston, Montreal, San Francisco, and New York, Playdemic, and WB Games studios in San Diego, Boston, Montreal, San Francisco, and New York.

Some of these studios and the games they produce ("Mortal Kombat," "Middle-earth: The Man in Charge" told Axios reporter Sarah Fisher that "some will stay with AT&T, some will move to the new company.

I can't say how this change will affect individual games or studios, but my guess is that big titles like "Mortal Kombat" probably won't pivot in any noticeable way anytime soon. The less obvious question is who will control the famous Nemesis system, for which Warner filed a patent in 2015, and what will be done with it.

The Warner Media/Discovery merger is clearly not confined to WBIE itself, but the game publishers have recently been at the table for at least another round of negotiations: in July 2020, AT&T is looking to sell WBIE for $4 billion, and Microsoft is a potential buyer Rumors circulated that AT&T was looking to sell WBIE for $4 billion and that Microsoft was a potential buyer. A month later, however, AT&T seemed to have changed its mind.

No further information was shared, other than confirmation that at least some of WBIE's studios were headed to the new company. We have contacted Warner Media for more information and will update if we hear back.