Warner Bros acquires MultiVersus devs as it shifts focus to free-to-play

Player First Games, the developers of MultiVersus, has been acquired by Warner Bros. "We have worked with Player First Games over several years to create and launch MultiVersus, and we are very pleased to welcome this talented team to Warner Bros Games," said David Haddad, president of Warner Bros Games, in a statement to IGN.

The development and release of MultiVersus, the free-to-play Smash Bros if Smash Bros. was Warner Bros, has been a real rollercoaster. MultiVersus released in July 2022 in open beta, eventually attracting millions of players with platform fighter brawls and the raw magnificence of Ultra Instinct Shaggy. But in March 2023, after MultiVersus had been playable for almost a year, Player First Games announced that—unbeknownst to most players—it had actually been in a prolonged public test and closed the servers.

MultiVersus disappeared for nine months, forcing fans to speculate about its continued existence based solely off of Belgian McDonald's cross-promotions. After a long silence, Player First finally confirmed its return in March, and the game relaunched in May 2024 with new netcode, characters, and PvE missions, earning our stamp of approval. It's far from the most popular game on Steam, but holds onto a healthy average of over 4,000 concurrent players on the platform. It's also seen a bit of controversy: players were displeased to find the game offering them an option to purchase more lives with real cash, an option that Player First said was a bug.

To put it bluntly, even if its relaunch has been received pretty positively, the lingering weirdness surrounding MultiVersus' vanishing acts and the general precarity of multiplayer-focused live-service games means I have a hard time seeing its name in headlines without assuming the worst. While acquisitions are by no means a guarantee of studio safety, it's certainly a better news story than another sudden disappearance.

Back in March, Warner Bros executive JB Perrette said the company would shift its focus to the "free-to-play space" following disappointing sales from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Acquiring Player First slots neatly into those plans. According to IGN, Player First co-founders Tony Huynh and Chris White will continue leading studio development. "Our team is excited to join the Warner Bros Games family, and we feel that this will be great for MultiVersus overall,” Huynh said.