MultiVersus was one of the bigger fighting game launches in recent years, with huge player numbers and seemingly a lot of interest from players… until they got bored. The game failed to keep up, and now its player numbers have quite seriously dwindled. We’ve got an idea of just how much that’s impacted Warner Bros Games this week as a new report has said MultiVersus failure has led to a $100 million loss to the company.
In more bad news for Warner Bros games, their recent financial call report from IGN has contained a breakdown of a massive write-down for the company. They’ve pushed out a revamped version of MultiVersus in the last year, but also badly thought-out projects like Suicide Squad.
Both projects have seemingly caused problems. No doubt made worse by under-performance elsewhere. Even Mortal Kombat 1 has failed to catch on like previous titles, not even appearing at EVO events coming up. Why has the MultiVersus failure been such a problem?
Source: Player First games
MultiVersus Failure Means $100 Million Loss for Warner Bros Games
Warner Bros directly acquired the developer of MultiVersus before re-releasing the game, now out of early access.
The company’s recent financial call gave some more details on their recent results. Including that MultiVersus’ failure was directly responsible for $100 million worth of a writedown to the company. With their other failures contributing to an overall $200 million writedown.
What went wrong with the new version of MultiVersus? Much like their other attempts at live service, MultiVersus has failed to captured an audience. While Smash Bros has had many competitors over the years, most don’t manage the same longevity. MultiVersus has suffered numerous problems, from poor netcode to poor support. The game has also been more aggressively monetized than rivals.
The game has failed to maintain its launch player numbers. At the moment, the MultiVersus player count looks far too low to support the game. It’s currently struggling to break more than 2,000 players. It’s been roughly on a decline since July 2024, where the game re-entered active play.
MultiVersus isn’t over yet, but with such a huge loss it seems like it’s been a problem for its publisher. The game could stage a comeback, but right now things look bleak for the fighter.