Warner Bros. Closes Studios Behind Shadow of Mordor and MultiVersus, Cancels Wonder Woman Game
Another day, another round of videogame industry layoffs. This afternoon, Warner Bros. Games announced that they are closing three of their studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. Player First Games was behind the Smash Bros.-style fighting game MultiVersus, while Monolith Productions was a longstanding development outfit that created Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War, F.E.A.R and F.E.A.R 2, the Condemned games, The Matrix Online, and more. Along with the news of the studio closures, WB also announced that Monolith’s Wonder Woman game is canceled.
Warner Bros. Games issued Kotaku the following statement about the closures:
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.
Just a few weeks ago, Bloomberg released a report that Warner Bros.’ gaming division was struggling following the directionless leadership of David Haddad. Specifically, Monolith’s Wonder Woman game was nowhere near release despite being announced back in 2021 and had already undergone several internal reboots and creative lead changes. As for the more public struggles, the publisher has recently put out several costly flops. Warner Bros recently announced they were shutting down Player First Games’ Smash Bros.-style fighting game, MultiVersus, later this May, a game launched to impressive numbers before its player base crashed due to poorly received monetization and gameplay issues. Additionally, Rocksteady’s long-in-development Suicide Squad cost the company hundreds of millions last year due to its poor sales figures.
These are just the latest rounds of studio closures in the videogame industry following a general push by business executives towards live-service titles like Suicide Squad and MultiVersus. In an already volatile industry, this type of game is even more hit or miss, and for every Marvel Rivals that smashes expectations, there are several Concords that bomb, dragging down entire studios with them. And somehow, even when these games are massive success stories like with Marvel Rivals, companies still find ways to lay off their workers. As the job losses continue to pile up, it’s clear that fundamental changes are long overdue for the industry.