Restructures

Warner Bros. Games has undergone a drastic shift among its leadership, as part of the company’s refocus on major IPs like Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter, DC, and Game of Thrones.

According to Variety, three studio heads were promoted to senior vice president positions. These include NetherRealm’s Shaun Himmerick, Warner Bros. Games New York’s Steven Flenory, and Warner Bros. Games Montreal’s Yves Lachance.

Himmerick is now in charge of both Mortal Kombat and DC games, Lachance is handling Harry Potter and Game of Thrones, while Flenory is left with game and publishing technology, customer service, quality assurance and user research.

Recently a trailer for Game of Thrones: War for Westeros was revealed at Summer Game Fest. Check it out here!Watch on YouTube

The trio will now report to Warner Bros. Discovery’s CEO of games and global streaming, while all teams under the Warner Bros. umbrella will now be reporting directly to these new vice presidents.

Variety confirmed no layoffs are attached with this shift. This is in stark contrast to Rocksteady, developer of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and part of the Warner Bros. Discovery collection of studios, which suffered significant layoffs in January 2025.

Warner also recently closed Monolith, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego as part of what the company called a “strategic change in direction”. Back in March it was reported by Bloomberg a major expansion to Hogwarts Legacy was cancelled, and MultiVersus officially got its final update earlier this year. Even Mortal Kombat wasn’t sheltered from this hardship, suddenly announcing an end to major updates in May despite prior statements from Ed Boon that the game would have a longer life ahead of it.

So what does this mean for future games from Warner Bros. Games? Well we know a sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is coming, a game that proved exceptionally popular for Warner Bros. and a jewel in its crown ever since.

We also saw Game of Thrones: War for Westeros announced at Summer Game Fest, an RTS set to launch next year. These will prove to be the first examples of games created under the umbrella of Warner Bros. Games’ new direction, and a tone setter for what’s to come. DC Boss James Gunn stated in February he was discussing the development of games using the IP with Rocksteady and NetherRealm. Injustice 3, anyone?

It’s clear Warner Bros. Games is in a bad state. Its lack of game releases resulted in a 48 percent drop in game revenue last quarter, and it has unceremoniously kicked hundreds of developers out the door. The company is in desperate need of a win. Whether or not this shift can lead to an end to what has been a hellish decade for the media giant’s gaming aspirations remains to be seen.

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In brief

The Ethereum Foundation is restructuring its Protocol R&D teams under the “Protocol” brand, a new initiative umbrella.
Three strategic initiatives are expected to target scaling Layer 1, scaling blobs, and enhancing the user experience.
Some team members won’t continue with the foundation as the organization streamlines operations.

Less than a month after the Pectra Upgrade, the Ethereum Foundation believes that the world’s second-largest crypto, both as a technology and as an ecosystem, is approaching major breakthroughs with higher stakes for a broader audience.

Yet those stakes could be at risk if the people steering it are entrenched in what it calls a messy process: shipping protocol.

“We must rethink our current approach to designing, developing, and stewarding the protocol,” the foundation wrote Monday, announcing the restructuring of its Protocol Research & Development teams.

The move is set to consolidate development efforts under a new “Protocol” division, focusing on three immediate goals. The foundation touts the move as a way to “respond proactively” to demands that it claims are “hard to articulate and even harder to fulfill.”

The overhaul divides teams into three initiatives: scaling the main blockchain (Layer 1), scaling blobs for data storage, and improving the user experience.

Each initiative is assigned dedicated leadership: Tim Beiko and Ansgar Dietrichs are responsible for L1 scaling, Alex Stokes and Francesco D’Amato will oversee blob scaling, while Barnabé Monnot and Josh Rudolf are tasked with improving user experience.

But not everyone is staying and making the cut for Protocol. Some members “won’t be continuing with the Ethereum Foundation,” it said, while encouraging ecosystem projects to recruit departing talent.

Decrypt reached out to the Ethereum Foundation to learn more.

Strategic roles

The three teams will be supported by Dankrad Feist, a prominent researcher and cryptographer renowned for “Danksharding,” a blockchain optimization process named after him. Feist will work as strategic advisor to all tracks.

Last year, Feist was involved in a conflict of interest controversy, when he, alongside fellow core developer Justin Drake, confirmed they received tokens for their advisory relationship with EigenLayer, a restaking protocol for Ethereum.

“It is clear that relying on culture and individual judgment has not been sufficient, and we have been working on a formal policy to address this,” Aya Miyaguchi, the foundation’s former Executive Director, said at the time.

Still, the Ethereum Foundation’s efforts at restructuring with Protocol aim to bridge a perceived gap between research and actual implementation.

Previous upgrades, such as Pectra, faced several hurdles: testnet failures earlier this year delayed the rollout by weeks as developers scrambled to patch bugs.

Now, through Protocol, the foundation is attempting to show “the world is ready for the world computer.”

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair

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Warner Bros. Games restructures leadership team following new focus on Game of Thrones, DC, Harry Potter, and Mortal Kombat

Ethereum Foundation Restructures R&D Division, Plans ‘Rethink’ on Design and Development

In brief

Strategic roles

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