August 2019 Cover

I S S U E NO . 4 | A U G U S T 2 0 1 9

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite In late June, WB Games San Francisco and Niantic partnered in launching their first augmented reality (AR) mobile game. Reminiscent of 2016’s Pokemon Go, the game enables players to interact with characters from the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beast franchises.  Players are able to visit real-world locations while casting spells and discovering artifacts, along with experiencing Harry Potter’s iconic music and characters first-hand.  In evaluating, the verdict is still out in measuring the success of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.  In its first weekend, the industry leader, Pokemon Go, yielded 24 million installs vs. Wizards Unite’s $3 million.  In the first month of its release, Pokemon Go generated $300 million vs. Wizard Unite’s $12 million.  Some critics have voiced that a couple of deterrents to Wizard Unite’s early success may have been a substantive learning curve for new players and a debatably aggressive model for monetization.  Given WB’s partner Niantic has a history of introducing game updates that have added to overall success over time, experts have indicated there’s potential down the road for Wizards Unite to continue to gain traction in the months and years to come.

Jay Tucker, Executive Director of the UCLA Anderson Center for Management of Enterprise in Media, Entertainment and Sports, is one of many outside observers that believes we’re well-positioned for success in the modern media world.  Although we’re viewed as an outsider within some circles in the traditional entertainment industry, our company has been working on its strategy for years and has also made strong hires in building a leadership team with experience in the space.  Some of these notable additions have been Jeffrey Zucker (former President of NBC Universal) and Ann Sarnoff (former President of BBC America).  It’s widely believed that our company’s biggest edge is likely our pre-existing relationships with millions of customers and to quote Tucker, “AT&T is uniquely positioned to put the business back in show business.” We’ll now be taking a deeper dive into three of our recent creative endeavors in exploring the power of our new WarnerMedia portfolio.