Warner Bros. Fighting Game MultiVersus Is Shutting Down for Good

MultiVersus, the Super Smash Bros.-styled fighting game featuring Warner Bros. characters, is going offline this May. Its online servers will be shut down when its fifth and final season concludes on May 28, and while its single player modes and local multiplayer will still be available, the game will also be delisted from digital storefronts on that date.
Originally released in open beta back in July 2022, MultiVersus was taken offline for the first time in June 2023 after its player count plummeted. Nearly a year later, it was fully released on May 28, 2024. However, after an initial spike, the game encountered many of the same retention problems the second time around, alienating large chunks of the player base with frustrating monetization choices and strange decisions.
The first major issue with the re-launch was that much of the development time for the 1.0 release was dedicated to porting the game to Unreal Engine 5, making it so that when the new version returned, it lacked certain features from the beta. On top of this, many bounced off the game due to monetization issues, like how it was relatively difficult to acquire new characters without spending money and that unlocking items in the Battle Pass felt far too slow, resulting in progression that was a grind. Add in other problems like controversial gameplay changes that slowed the pace of fights and a relatively lackluster roster that ignored many of the most requested Warner Bros. characters, and it’s fairly clear why this one struggled so much. Aside from Brawlhalla, there haven’t been many free-to-play fighting games, likely in part because it’s difficult for this relatively niche genre to reach the high-volume player base necessary to sustain a free-to-play monetization approach.
This last year has seen a growing number of failed live service titles, such as Suicide Squad and Concord, the latter being one of the biggest financial flops in videogame history. While a handful of games in this style have managed to rake in huge profits, like Fortnite, Marvel Rivals, and more, the majority seem to end up as incredibly expensive misses. Part of this comes from these games requiring massive player bases to be profitable, especially if they are free-to-play. Additionally, most people likely don’t have the bandwidth to play more than a few games in this style due to them being time sinks, which when combined with the large number of live-service games coming out every year, makes for a highly competitive market. While this recent string of high-profile failures may dissuade publishers from so heavily investing in this style of experience, it’s also possible many will continue due to the non-zero chance of becoming the next mega-hit that single-handedly sustains a company. However, as long as this type of hit-or-miss experience remains a go-to for publishers, the industry’s ongoing volatility is likely to continue.