Warner Bros. Woes Continue As Wonder Woman Game Reportedly Stuck In Development Hell
It seems Warner Bros.’ gaming division just can’t catch a break. A few days after announcing that their Super Smash Bros.-themed fighting game MultiVersus was being shut down, Jason Schreier from Bloomberg broke a story detailing the extensive woes across the company’s upcoming gaming lineup. Most notably, Monolith Productions’ untitled Wonder Woman game, originally announced back in December of 2021, has been trapped in a rough development cycle with no release date in sight.
The game was reportedly rebooted early last year after switching directors and has already cost the company more than 100 million dollars. Monolith Productions previously worked on the best-selling Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its 2017 follow-up Middle-earth: Shadow of War; they haven’t released anything since. Schreier’s report details how, after Shadow of War, they worked on an unannounced Game of Thrones title that was eventually canceled, leading to the resignation of former studio head Kevin Stephens and many of his colleagues. Before its internal reboot, Monolith’s Wonder Woman game was going to utilize some form of Shadow of Mordor’s well-regarded Nemesis system, where enemies remember previous encounters and adapt. However, this was eventually scrapped in favor of a more traditional action game format, which has not come together. At this point, it is unclear if the game will ever come out.
These issues tie in with large problems under former Warner Bros. gaming division head, David Haddad, who stepped down last month. Under his leadership, there were reportedly constant communication issues, a tendency towards trend-chasing that wasted development time, and a persistent air of uncertainty.
Last year, Warner Bros. and Rocksteady Games put out Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a long-awaited release from the creators of the acclaimed Batman: Arkham series. It proved a massive critical and commercial flop, and last December, it was announced that its servers were to be shut down. While Rocksteady is apparently working on a new Batman game, it is still early in development and years away from release. Outside of MultiVersus’ previously mentioned imminent shutdown, Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions also undershot expectations for the company last year.
Beyond its gaming division, Warner Bros. has undergone significant changes under the leadership of CEO David Zaslav, who has prioritized reality programming over HBO’s output, shelved films for tax write-offs, and removed many animated series from streaming. Additionally, he has also said that the company will make fewer games going forward, focusing largely on their bigger existing franchises. These struggles aren’t exactly out of the ordinary considering the unprecedented number of layoffs the gaming industry has seen over the last few years, but they seem to indicate these tough times are likely to continue at many AAA studios going forward.