Sony's Free-To-Play Festival, as the name implies, asks players to try out the best free offerings on its consoles. I logged in last night and the dashboard urged me to hit free titles including Fortnite, Genshin Impact, and ... Multiversus?
My PlayStation 5 dashboard is correct in that Player First Games' fighting game is one hundred percent free-to-play. It's even one of my favorite platform fighters, but context matters here. The headline regarding Multiversus is that its online features are going away forever at the end of May.
After losing more than $100 million in its bid for a slice of Smash Bros. pie, Warner Bros. pulled the plug and closed MultiVersus Player First Studios as part of its ongoing costcutting measures. It's a shame, because the game's final update fixed many of the problems that had prevented it from gaining a foothold.
Seems like an odd choice to promote during a celebration of free games. If I had to hazard a guess, I'm betting somebody earmarked the soon to be defunct fighter for this marketing blitz months ago and didn't check back after the announcement.
It's a final thumb to the eye for the fighter's small but dedicated fanbase, many of whom were taking to social media with the Save Multiversus hashtag. If there's a silver lining, the game is still free and there are still a few dedicated fans playing it. You've got a couple of months to enjoy its online features, and local multiplayer will function after the online features go away.
In fairness, two months worth of fun is a lot of more than I've gotten from some games. That includes not just the free ones, but quite a few I paid $60 or more for. Let me be clear, I'm not telling you not to play Multiversus. In fact, if you enjoy platform fighters or any of the numerous Warner Bros. characters in this game, I encourage you to play it as long as you can. I'm just pointing out an oopsie on Sony's part because that's the kind of stuff I do.