Last week, Developer Player First Games delivered sour news for MultiVersus players, announcing that Season 5 of the crossover platform fighter would be the final update, as well as revealing that the game's online support will be ending in May.
Addressing the news, MultiVersus Director Tony Huynh took to social media to not only thank Player First Games and Warner Bros. for the opportunity to work on the game but also the players who supported the game from inception. Furthermore, Huynh took some time to condemn disgruntled players' "threats to harm" aimed at the game's developers.
"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," prefaced Huynh, adding, "Also to every IP holder thank you for entrusting us with your babies, we hope we made the characters true to themselves and felt authentic to your fans."
Specifically addressing his team of developers, Huynh praised, "I couldn’t be prouder of the work the PFG team did. Their endless creativity and passion never ceased to inspire and amaze me."
"And of course I wanted to thank every player who has ever played or supported MultiVersus," the director would go on to declare, further adding, "Delighting and serving players is Player First Games objective."
"I apologize for not addressing things sooner, there’s been a lot going on and I’ve been focused on the game and the team, but now more-so the team. 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," Huynh admitted.
Though without providing any evidence to support his claim, Huynh went on to condemn the actions of MultiVersus players who may not have taken the news well and have been purportedly taking aim at the team of developers, asserting, "I know that this is painful for everyone, and I know every member of PFG feels it too, but I have to call this out, you’re entitled to what you say and think, but 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," he lamented, adding, "I am in deep mourning for the game. Nobody wanted this outcome and it wasn’t from lack of caring or effort."
In November of last year, Warner Bros. Discovery President and CEO David Zaslav, and Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels admitted that MultiVersus made the company take a $100 million hit as the game was "substantially underperforming."
"But even in an industry of hits and misses, we must acknowledge that our Studios business must deliver more consistently. This applies to our games business, which we recognise is substantially underperforming its potential right now," Zaslav said at the time.
Addressing the titles that have made a significant profit, Zaslav went on, “We have four strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans – Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones and DC, in particular Batman. We are focusing our development efforts on those four core franchises with proven studios to improve our success ratio."
"Results were impacted by games, for which we took another $100+ million impairment due to the underperforming releases – primarily MultiVersus – this quarter, bringing total writedown year-to-date to over $300 million in our games business, the key factor in this year’s Studios profit decline," he further declared.
MultiVersus' final season is kicking off on Tuesday the 4th of February and will run through the 30th of May, when the game's online support is finally terminated.
Step into the fray of our MultiVerse, where every match is a wild jamboree of iconic characters throwing down in wonderfully weird ways. Pair Marvin the Martian and Arya Stark, or Velma with Batman — Get ready for a rollercoaster of fun and discover a universe of endless possibilities!
MultiVersus is currently available for the PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Epic Games Store.