Microsoft has expressed interest to acquire the gaming division of Warner Bros. to expand the game-making capabilities of its Xbox group, The Information reported.
The development comes even when AT&T, the parent company of Warner' Bros., has not yet made up its mind fully to sell the business, said the report on Monday which cited two people familiar with the situation.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, or WB Games, is known for publishing the "Batman: Arkham" series, "Middle-Earth: Shadow of Mordor," many "Lego" and "Harry Potter" games, "Mortal Kombat," and "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt", TheStreet reported.
The unit consists of game-development studios spread across the U.S., Canada and Britain.
According to a report in CNBC last month, AT&T was discussing a sale of the Warner Bros. gaming unit in an around $4 billion deal.
Take-Two Interactive Software, Electronic Arts and Activision Blizzard all expressed interest in buying the gaming division, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The reports did not cite any official confirmation from any side.
In June, Microsoft said it was partnering with Facebook to be able to compete with other players and that it would be shutting down its gaming platform Mixer.
Microsoft Mixer will be shuttered on July 22, Microsoft said in a statement.
"It became clear that the time needed to grow our own livestreaming community to scale was out of measure with the vision and experiences that Microsoft and Xbox want to deliver for gamers now, so we've decided to close the operations side of Mixer and help the community transition to a new platform," the Mixer team said at the time.