MultiVersus Director Breaks Silence On Game’s Cancellation, Responds To Threats Against Devs

Following the announcement that the fighting game MultiVersus is shutting down this May, Player First Games studio boss and game director Tony Huynh has released a statement reflecting on the announcement in which he also spoke out against those who are issuing violent threats against the game’s developers.

Huynh said fans are entitled to speak their minds and share opinions on MultiVersus, but there is a limit. “When there are threats to harm it’s crossing the line. I hope that you can take a step back and realize that this is an extremely sad time for the team,” Huynh said. “I am in deep mourning for the game. Nobody wanted this outcome and it wasn’t from lack of caring or effort.”

The developer added, “While I’m sad about the outcome, I will forever be grateful for the opportunity given to us by Warner Bros. Games and to each and every developer on the Player First Games and WB Games teams.” Hunyh also thanked every IP holder for entrusting the studio with their respective franchises and characters.

Huynh also thanked the developers at Player First Games and fans themselves who played MultiVersus. “Thank you for sending us all the great fan art, character ideas, and personal stories. They were the highlight of every day and always excited the team. I’m sorry if we couldn’t get to your favorite character. I do think Aquaman and Lola are really cool and I hope you all check them out,” Huynh said.

Huynh went on to shed some behind-the-scenes light on how characters were chosen for inclusion in the MultiVersus roster, saying it comes down to “a bunch of things.” These include “development time, listening to what the community wants, working with IP holders and approvals, if there is a cross-marketing opportunity available to support, and of course if the team is inspired to make the character.”

The Banana Guard character, from Adventure Time, came into existence because the developers were enthusiastic and created the first cut of the character in a single weekend.

“When inspiration and enthusiasm spark we want to reward that and we got Banana Guard because of that. It wasn’t at the expense of another character. It was because the team was excited about making the character,” Huynh said.

Finally, Huynh said they hope fans enjoy Season 5–which is the final season–and that fans of MultiVersus direct their time and money to other fighting games to support the genre overall.

“Thank you for allowing this dream to become a reality even if for a briefer time than we would have wanted. I don’t know what the future holds for any of all of us, but I just wanted to say thank you. It has been an honor to work alongside the team at PFG to serve our community and players,” Huynh said.

MultiVersus, a platformer brawler similar to Super Smash Bros., first launched into open beta in 2022 and was then taken down for a period of time after a year. It then came back fully released in 2024 with new content. It features characters from across various WB properties, including DC, Looney Tunes, and Cartoon Network.

In GameSpot’s MultiVersus review, we scored the game an 8/10 and said, “Warner Bros’ all-star battle proves to be a worthy contender to the platform fighter throne.”

A free-to-play game, MultiVersus reached an all-time peak concurrent player figure of more than 150,000 on Steam, but has dropped off substantially, reaching a peak of fewer than 700 players on Steam in the past 24 hours. MultiVersus is also available on console for Xbox and PlayStation.

The game will be playable after May via an offline mode that supports local multiplayer or multiplayer against AI opponents. As for Player First Games, as Huynh said, there is no word yet as to what may happen to the studio and its developers. Warner Bros. Games owns the studio, which has no upcoming projects that have been announced and no open positions on its careers page.

Warner Bros. Games did not disclose a reason for closing MultiVersus. The announcement came just after longtime Warner Bros. gaming boss David Haddad announced his exit from the company after more than a decade. That move was preceded by the announcement from Warner Bros. that it would focus only on a small group of mega-franchises for its gaming division in a bid to have the best chance to make the most money.

MultiVersus is just the latest live-service game to come to a close as the bubble bursts. Check out the gallery below to see some of the live-service games that Sony has closed or canceled in recent times.