Warner Bros. Discovery has acknowledged that MultiVersus is underperforming financially. In the company's latest earnings call, CEO David Zaslav stated that the Studios business — which encompasses film, TV, and video games — must deliver more consistently.
"This applies to our games business," he said, "which we recognize is substantially underperforming it potential right now."
Zaslav specifically made not of four "strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans – Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones and DC, in particular Batman."
There was no mention of MultiVersus until later in the call when CFO Gunnard Wiedenfels revealed that the fighting contributed to a year-on-year impairment of $100 million in Q3.
“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 said.
MultiVersus is a free-to-play crossover fighting game featuring a roster of characters drawn from Warner Bros. franchises. Likened to Nintendo's Super Smash Bros., the platform fighter contains playable characters from Looney Tunes, Scooby-Doo, Game of Thrones, the DC Universe, and multiple Cartoon Network franchises.
Announced in November 2021, early access and beta versions of the game ran from July 2022 to June 2023. It was briefly shut down before relaunching in March 2024 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. For the full launch, the game was rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5 to support better netcode and visuals.
MultiVersus received generally positive reviews when it first launched in beta and it drew a good amount of players. It was the most successful WB Games title on Steam and the biggest launch for a fighting game released on the platform. In June 2024, it topped the free game download charts in North America and Europe.
Unfortunately, as a free-to-play game, it seems that the number of players hasn't resulted in financial success for the game. With Warner Bros. now acknowledging MultiVersus's underperformance, one has to wonder how much resources the studio will be given to continue supporting the game.
Just last week, Warner Bros. Games announced two new fighters set to join the roster in Season 4: DC's Raven and Adventure Time's Marceline. The newest season will kick off on November 12th and run for 10 weeks, featuring new maps, game modes, and more. The future of MultiVersus beyond Season 4, however, now appears a bit murky.