A new report from Bloomberg has revealed that Warner Bros. Games has canceled a planned expansion for Hogwarts Legacy, as well as a Definitive Edition that would include both the base game and this new content. The cancellation comes amid a significant restructuring within Warner’s video game division, which has suffered losses of $300 million due to failures like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Multiversus. A game that will not receive new content Despite the fact that the expansion was never formally announced, it is speculated that the Definitive Edition could have been […]
A new report from Bloomberg has revealed that Warner Bros. Games has canceled a planned expansion for Hogwarts Legacy, as well as a Definitive Edition that would include both the base game and this new content. The cancellation comes amid a significant restructuring within Warner’s video game division, which has suffered losses of $300 million due to failures such as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and Multiversus.
A game that will not receive new content
Although the expansion was never formally announced, it is speculated that the Definitive Edition could have been a director’s cut that was first reported in 2024. According to sources, the decision to cancel the additional content was based on the fact that production costs were not justified in relation to the amount of expected content.
The cancellation is especially surprising given that Hogwarts Legacy was a resounding success in 2023 and is considered one of the four “key franchises” for Warner, alongside Game of Thrones, Mortal Kombat, and DC. Just last month, the company reaffirmed its commitment to projects related to Harry Potter, emphasizing its importance in the future of the company’s video game business.
However, in the midst of the restructuring, several development studios were also closed, including Monolith and Player First Games, and other ongoing projects were canceled, such as the video game based on Wonder Woman. Despite the bad news, Warner has confirmed that a sequel to Hogwarts Legacy is still in development and remains one of its top priorities.
It can be anticipated that, given the success of the original title, the cancellation of an expansion and a Definitive Edition could have a negative impact on the franchise’s short-term revenue potential, raising questions about the business strategy to be followed by Warner in the video game industry.
Warner Bros has one of the strongest video game divisions in the industry. That doesn’t change the fact that it is also one of the ones facing the most problems currently. With 2,000 employees spread across more than a dozen subsidiaries, they have been struggling for almost a decade to meet expectations. This has led to a situation of constant game cancellations and massive layoffs among its studios. What is the reason for this? The management of a man who is no longer with the company. All of Warner Bros’ problems have a specific name At the end of […]
Warner Bros has one of the strongest video game divisions in the industry. However, it is also one of the ones facing the most problems currently. With 2,000 employees spread across more than a dozen subsidiaries, they have been struggling for almost a decade to meet expectations. This has led to a situation of constant game cancellations and massive layoffs among its studios. What is the reason for this? It is due to the management of a man who is no longer with the company.
At the end of January, the departure of David Haddad, the president of Warner Bros. Interactive, was announced. Having been invited to leave, rather than being fired, it was a move that was expected to happen sooner rather than later after he had a series of consecutive failures and there was not only a lack of clear direction in the video game division but also evident discontent among the studios.
Why? Because Warner Bros. Interactive reported losses of 200 million dollars associated with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, in addition to another 100 million dollars associated with Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions and MultiVersus. The first and last are the games that were supposed to lead the division during these years.
According to Bloomberg in an extensive report, the reason this has happened is due to Haddad’s lack of vision. With little to no interest in the world of video games, lacking knowledge of it, he was focused on chasing trends and wasting resources in useless ways, both by changing approaches midway through development and assigning games to studios that did not have clear experience in that kind of genre. This became especially evident in the case of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Additionally, sources from the studies claim that communication was also poor. This often resulted in months passing without knowing what the company’s next game would be or whether they would participate in the next E3.
Closures, chaos, and various nonsense
This lack of communication is something that was perceived at many points during his presidency. When it was decided to close the Cartoon Network Games division, not only were a dozen games removed from physical and digital stores, but the developers were not notified in advance, who had to find out through the press. Creating a small chaos that could have been avoided had the situation been communicated beforehand.
In the same way, the lack of communication has a lot to do with the failure of MultiVersus and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The former was launched in open beta, with great success, only to be closed and relaunched months later, with poor communication and extremely aggressive monetization, which led players to turn away from it. The latter was developed by a studio that was not specialized in that genre, when it was no longer trending, simply to try to ride a wave that was already passing.
Because that has defined the last years of Warner Bros. Interactive. From the presidency of David Haddad. Chasing trends at the wrong time, not knowing what the audience wants, and not listening to either developers or players. With the expected results.
The situation of Warner Bros’ four crown jewels
Thanks to Boomblerg, we know the specific situation of the four main studios of Warner Bros. Although not very encouraging, it seems that all four are working on different projects, to some extent. All of them demonstrating the obvious: that there is a very serious management problem within the company.
At Monolith Productions, responsible for the two Middle-earth: Shadow games, they have been working for years on a Wonder Woman game. Announced in 2021, changed directors last year, and restarted in early 2024, ensuring that we won’t see it for a long time. And aside from the fact that it will feature an evolution of the Nemesis system from their Lord of the Rings games, we know absolutely nothing about this game. Or if it will ever be released.
Warner Bros. Games Montreal, on the other hand, is in a delicate position. After the failure of Gotham Knights following several changes imposed by management, they have been serving as a support studio sending several proposals, all of which have been rejected. They finally accepted the proposal to make a Flash game which, after the box office failure of the movie, was canceled. This led to a large part of the studio’s management resigning and the rest trying to get approval for a project based on Game of Thrones.
Avalanche Software may seem to be on the other end after the success of Hogwarts Legacy. But we fear it is not that easy. The failure of Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions makes them fear that the success of the first game may not be plausible again and they needed external help from almost all Warner Bros studios to lift it, which puts them in a very delicate position regarding a hypothetical Hogwarts Legacy 2. Not to mention another project.
On their part, Rocksteady Studios is in a terrible position. Working on a new Batman game, the directors left the studio in 2022 and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice is the biggest failure in Warner Bros history and one of the biggest recent failures in video games. This puts them on the brink.
Is it possible to get out of this situation?
All of this does not mean that Warner Bros is not in a position to come back in full form. But to do so, they need to make concrete plans, measure their steps very carefully, and take into account their strengths and weaknesses. Continuing to chase trends and blindly swinging will only lead them to what they are currently heading towards: ruin.
Inviting David Haddad to leave has been a good start. But now they must do more. Much more. They need to secure interesting projects, in the right project, and pray that the talent to do so hasn’t been burned out by the disastrous management of the previous administration. All of this assuming that the current administration is not only better but suitable. Because Warner Bros is facing some very tough years ahead. They have come out of worse situations, Warner Bros included. But for that, future vision is needed, and it remains to be seen if they will have it.
The popular game MultiVersus, developed by Player First Games and released in full version in 2024, will shut down its servers in May of this year. Despite having a successful launch in open beta in 2022 and reaching a peak of over 150,000 concurrent players on Steam, the latest figure shows a drastic drop, with just 700 players in the last 24 hours, highlighting the significant decline in its popularity. Tony Huynh, the studio director, expressed his sadness over the closure and thanked Warner Bros. and the gaming community for their […]
The popular game MultiVersus, developed by Player First Games and released in full version in 2024, will shut down its servers in May of this year. Despite having a successful launch in open beta in 2022 and reaching a peak of over 150,000 concurrent players on Steam, the latest figure shows a drastic drop, with just 700 players in the last 24 hours, highlighting the significant decline in its popularity.
Tony Huynh, director of the studio, expressed his sadness over the closure and thanked Warner Bros. and the gaming community for their support. He highlighted the importance of maintaining respectful dialogue and condemned threats of violence towards developers, emphasizing that while fans have the right to express their opinions, boundaries should not be crossed. “No one wanted this outcome and it wasn’t for lack of effort,” Huynh stated.
It will still be playable in offline mode, but will not receive updates
MultiVersus, a fighting game in the style of Super Smash Bros., will feature an offline mode after its closure, allowing for local multiplayer and matches against AI opponents, although no new content will be released. Huynh bids farewell by expressing hope that fans enjoy the fifth and final season of the game and encourages them to support other titles in the genre.
On the other hand, the future of Player First Games remains uncertain, as there is no news of new projects or open positions on their careers page. Warner Bros. has not clarified the reasons behind the game’s closure, although it has been speculated that this is part of a broader company strategy to focus on a smaller group of successful franchises in its gaming division.
Player First Games and WB Games have announced that MultiVersus will shut down its servers on May 30, 2024, marking the end of its run as a popular online fighting game. Season 5, which will begin on February 4, will be the last content update and will add two new playable characters to the roster: Aquaman from DC and Lola Bunny from Looney Tunes. Players will be able to unlock Aquaman as a battle pass reward and Lola through a daily login system. Starting January 31, players will not be able to use […]
Player First Games and WB Games have announced that MultiVersus will shut down its servers on May 30, 2024, marking the end of its run as a popular online fighting game. Season 5, which will begin on February 4, will be the last content update and will add two new playable characters to the roster: Aquaman, from DC, and Lola Bunny, from Looney Tunes. Players will be able to unlock Aquaman as a battle pass reward and Lola through a daily login system.
Starting January 31, players will not be able to use real money to purchase Gleamium, the in-game currency. However, those who have already accumulated Gleamium or character tokens will be able to use them until the service closes. The company has confirmed that players will be able to access local game modes after the closure, allowing them to play against artificial intelligence or with up to three more friends.
You still have time to play it even when its servers shut down
Online access will be available during Season 5 until 9 AM PT on May 30. To enjoy local features, players must download the new update between February 4 and the server shutdown date. It is essential to log in to create a local save file that includes previously unlocked and purchased content.
Since its launch in open beta in 2022, MultiVersus has faced several disruptions, with this being the most recent after its return in 2024 with new content. Despite the difficulties, the game established itself as a significant competitor in the platform fighting genre. With its closure, it leaves a legacy in the gaming community and in the world of video games.
MultiVersus está siendo todo un éxito para Warner Bros, por eso han decidido invertir todavía más en él, asegurándose el futuro del juego.
Multiversus has been quite a roller coaster. No one expected anything from it, but its beta was a huge success. So much so that at Riot, they decided not to continue with their plans to make a Smash-style game. As time went on, its reception cooled down and Warner decided to withdraw the beta. When they relaunched it, the reception was lukewarm due to certain questionable business decisions, but the quick action of Player First Games, the developing company, has brought it back into the public’s favor.
Due to its success, Warner Bros has decided to continue investing in the game and, specifically, in its development studio. That’s why Warner Bros. Games has announced the acquisition of Player First Games. And while the amount for which the operation has been closed has not been made public, we do know that the co-founders of Player First Games, Tony Huynh and Chris White, director of MultiVersus and director of technology respectively, will continue to lead the company.
Regarding the purchase, both sides have wanted to emphasize how satisfied they are with it. David Haddad, president of Warner Bros. Games, has stated that he is very happy to welcome Player First Games to the company. On the other hand, Huynh has stated that they will continue working to make the experience with MultiVersus the best possible and that the integration of their development team with the publisher is optimal for the players.
In fact, we will have news from MultiVersus very soon. The second season is already coming, and with it will come a new character, the legendary Samurai Jack, and a new stage, inspired by the Warner Bros water tower. On the other hand, one of the most requested modes by the community will be added. The ranked mode will be added, with 1 vs. 1 and 2 vs. 2 battles, which will serve to obtain ranking points that, at the end of the season, will translate into exclusive cosmetic items according to our position in the rankings.
If you are interested in playing MultiVersus, it has never been easier. MultiVersus is available for free download, with microtransactions, on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, and PC.
For those who don’t know, Pickle Rick is an alter ego of Rick, the main character of Rick and Morty who, as the name suggests, is, well, a pickle. What does this have to do with anything? Well, besides being a playable character in MultiVersus, several characters that are yet to come to the game have been leaked. All because of him.
According to several dataminers, the voices of several characters are already present in the game. And Pickle Rick, in particular, makes references to several characters that are yet to come to the game.
This particular character has confirmed that The Powerpuff Girls and several characters from RWBY —a series by Rooster Teeth, a studio that recently closed Warner Bros— will be coming to the game in the near future. Explicitly mentioning them in some of their voice lines, there is no doubt that they will be among the next characters to arrive in the game.
On the other hand, dataminers have found references and voices for more characters. Even beyond Pickle Rick. Discovering voice lines from Agent Smith, from The Matrix, and references to other characters like Aquaman, the DC superhero, and Marceline, from Adventure Time, it seems that the game will have a constant inclusion of new characters in the future. Although, we won’t lie to you, we didn’t expect Pickle Rick to be our most reliable source for this kind of leaks.
Warner Bros. has done it again, because Multiversus is being a success, but they have decided to implement terrible monetization.
The open beta of MultiVersus was one of the biggest events that fighting games have experienced in recent years. No game had managed to overshadow Super Smash Bros since the release of Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but Warner’s game achieved the impossible. After its closure, many people were disappointed and eagerly awaited this release. Which has ended up being, at best, bittersweet.
Although the numbers are spectacular and the game improvements are there, with new characters, scenarios, and fixed hitboxes to work as they should, not everything is good news. And it is that the developing studio has decided to make a series of changes to the game systems. Changes that have not been well received due to what they imply: a more aggressive monetization.
MultiVersus is a free-to-play video game that allows you to fight with iconic characters from Warner Bros.
Many people have noticed that there are restrictions on character selection in local matches. During the open beta, as long as it was a local match or training mode, you could play with any character. This is no longer possible. Multiversus offers a rotation of a handful of characters, but all the others must be unlocked in order to be played. Making it impossible to play the game locally, unless all the characters are unlocked beforehand.
This is a problem for several reasons. And all of them come down to the monetization of the game. Although it is possible to unlock all the characters simply by playing, the fastest method is to pay around 10 euros per character. A reasonable amount if you want one or two characters, but not if you want the entire roster.
What does this mean? It means that if you want to try a certain character, you have to pay or wait for it to be available in rotation. If your friends come to play at your house, they can only play with the characters you have unlocked. If you want to practice against a specific character, you have to unlock it beforehand. And the worst part of it all. Anyone who wants to organize game tournaments will have to unlock all the characters beforehand, making the competitive structure of the game much more difficult for no apparent reason. Or no reason other than greed.
All of this has enraged fans, tarnishing an otherwise fantastic release. Therefore, it is to be expected to see what the response from Warner Bros. and Player First Games is in what is nothing short of a publicity nightmare. This could potentially kill a good portion of the momentum of a game that has had a spectacular start.
MultiVersus, Warner Bros’ answer to Smash Bros, arrives today on consoles and PC, and we’ll tell you everything you need to know to play it.
MultiVersus was a tremendous success for Warner Bros in the launch of its open beta. However, a decline in numbers and the need to polish the game caused it to be withdrawn in mid-2023. Until now. MultiVersus returns with its full version and we tell you everything you need to know.
MultiVersus is a free-to-play video game that allows you to fight with iconic characters from Warner Bros.
Do I have to pay for MultiVersus?
MultiVersus is a game as a service. That means it is a free game, with in-game purchases in the form of cosmetics, new characters, and battle passes.
If I already played the open beta, will I keep what I already had in my MultiVersus account?
Initially, everything you obtained during the open beta will be kept for its official release. However, only everything that has been achieved or purchased before June 25, 2023, will be kept.
Is there cross-saving and cross-playing in MultiVersus?
Yes. Everything you achieve in MultiVersus will be associated with your account and you will be able to carry it from one version of the game to another. In addition, you will be able to play against people who play on a different platform than yours.
On which platforms will MultiVersus be available?
MultiVersus will be available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Microsoft Windows. There are rumors of a possible version for Nintendo Switch, but nothing is confirmed at the moment.
When does MultiVersus release?
The release of MultiVersus is on May 28, 2024. The release will be global, but it will have different launch times depending on whether you want to play it on consoles or on PC. MultiVersus will be released on consoles at 13:00PM and on PC at 18:00PM, Spanish time.
For years we have been seeing that the crossover trend is endless in the world of video games: ‘Fortnite’ has mixed with all imaginable franchises, ‘Call of Duty’ is on it, and ‘Super Smash Bros’ has long ceased to be a simple experiment to build an empire of franchises, the crazier the better. And that’s how they see us: as a group of kids who want to know who would win in a fight between Goku and Super Mario and are willing to spend whatever it takes to find out.
The perfect example is ‘MultiVersus’, a free-to-play fighting game that will be released on May 28th and has announced a roster of franchises ranging from ‘Adventure Time’ to ‘Batman’ including ‘Steven Universe’, ‘Rick and Morty’ or ‘Friday the 13th’. In other words: if a Warner franchise has fans, even if they are niche, it will appear here.
It is up to us, as consumers, to resist the obvious sirens’ songs that will come, as usual, in the form of season passes, variants, characters, costumes, skins, and more. And their new trailer is the perfect example of how they intend to hook us: Do you want to see Agent Smith from The Matrix face off against Arya Stark from ‘Game of Thrones’? Or Batman going up against Tom and Jerry? Congratulations: your dream has come true. It coincides with my nightmare.
It is curious that among the characters there are only three from Looney Tunes (Taz, Marvin the Martian and Bugs Bunny) compared to seven from the DC universe, for example. As an experiment, it serves to see which franchises Warner trusts and what they want to promote in the future, but this kind of Smash Bros, fun as it may be, is a constant reminder that we are only consumers and numbers in the investors’ bank account. And increasingly, sadly, more so.
