Warner Bros. Discovery has announced it is shutting down three video game studios: WB San Diego, Player First Games, and Monolith Productions. That marks the end of a rumored Wonder Woman game using the beloved Nemesis System used in Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor.
Warner put out this press release regarding the decision:
“We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises—Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones. After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios—Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them."
The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman videogame will not move forward. Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities. This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games.
We greatly admire the passion of the three teams and thank every employee for their contributions. As difficult as today is, we remain focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans and developed by our world-class studios and getting our Games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.”
WB had already spent a reported $100 million on the Wonder Woman game, but it was not close to releasing. Player First Games created platform fighter Multiversus, which will go offline in May after losing a reported $100 million. Sadly, the game's final update makes the fighter play the way fans had hoped it would all along.
There's a lot to unpack here. I absolutely wanted that Wonder Woman game, but years after its announcement we've seen nothing. Wonder Woman 1984 flopped hard, so the character's popularity has taken a huge hit. We're still unsure what Warner's plans are for Wonder Woman in the new DC Cinematic Universe.
Multiversus, poor Multiversus. This is a damn shame. There is so much this game does right, but the attempts at monetization did a lot to kill it. Not to mention launching, then declaring the whole thing was an "open beta" and shutting it down for a year. It's the closest anybody has come to successfully battling Smash Bros, but it's still a very distant second.
There's a lot of corporate dysfunction at Warner Bros Discovery right now. We probably shouldn't be surprised these games didn't work. We should consider it a miracle that games such as Mortal Kombat 1 somehow happened.