MultiVersus Going Offline in May
If you’ve ever wondered what happens when worlds collide, MultiVersus just gave us the answer: people lose money. If you don’t remember it – which is kind of the point – MultiVersus is a free-to-play online fighting game from developer Player First Games that brings together characters from a myriad of Warner Bros. properties, like DC Comics, Game of Thrones, Looney Tunes, and Scooby-Doo. It was a thing for a very short time, but after its initial early access and open beta releases in 2022, it began to lose steam, dropping massively in 2023. MultiVersus was fully released in May of 2024, but it never recaptured the popularity it had when it first arrived. Since then, Warner Bros. Games acquired Player First, and the game lost them $100 million, half as much money as the disastrous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Its full release also saw the loss of several features from the open beta, all of which were reinstated through various updates but which annoyed fans.
And now, we have the result of all this tumult:MultiVersus will go offline on May 30, 2025, at 9:00 AM Pacific (6:00 AM Eastern), with season 5, which begins tomorrow, being its last. If you already have the game, or you download it before May 30, you’ll still be able to play offline against friends or AI bots, although you must install the latest version and log in before support ends. However, in-game purchases have already ended, so you have to earn anything you want – including new characters – through gameplay via the in-game currency Gleamium, and there will be no refunds for purchased Gleamium or anything else you paid for. And gamers, particularly the ones who spent money on MultiVersus, are mad – so much so that, according to Player First co-founder Tony Huynh, he and other members of the development team are getting death threats.
It’s been an incredible ride, MVPs. Thank you for all the support. For more details, please visit our blog post https://t.co/tLVzpA9JaQ and FAQ https://t.co/XKuxAnd26j. pic.twitter.com/VLzBDbP0GQ
— MultiVersus (@multiversus) January 31, 2025
Obviously, death threats are bad, and I hope no one acts on them or does anything violent. But my guess is that people are this angry because of the no-refunds policy, with the studio essentially swallowing up every bit of cash gamers spent on MultiVersus. This is probably a necessity because the game lost $100 million, and it was free-to-play, so you can make an argument that any money lost is offset by the lack of charge for downloading the game in the first place. But I scrolled through the comments of the cancellation post on X embedded above, and some people are claiming to have sunk over $120 into MultiVersus, surely more than it would have cost to buy the game. When Marvel’s Avengers was delisted and taken offline, Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics at least made all downloadable content available to anyone who bought the game, which Player First and Warner Bros. Games should do as well; it’s not like they’re going to lose any money doing it. (It was also helpful that Marvel’s Avengers players got some notice before in-game purchases were terminated.) It sucks that they have to shut down the game online, but at least give people who supported you a little something for their trouble… or, at least, their money.
As for the game itself, I played MultiVersus during the open beta, and I quite enjoyed it. It was fun playing as a lot of these characters (not the stupid ones from cartoons I never heard of), although some of them took some work to figure out how best to use them, like Batman. I was delighted to get Rick and Morty when they were released because I’m a big fan of the show. But the most fun you could have with MultiVersus was playing as Superman; he’s of the “tank” fighter class, and he’s essentially an unstoppable force of victory if you know how to use him. Nothing beats having Superman pick up an opponent, fly him up in the air, and punch him off the screen. However, at a certain point, I just stopped playing MultiVersus and never picked it up again. I don’t know why; as I said, I liked the game. Maybe it got too repetitive; there’s only so much enjoyment you can get out of beating the same characters with the same characters. Then again, I haven’t played it after its full release, so maybe they fixed that and debuted some new levels or challenges. Whatever the case, I’m thinking of logging back in and seeing if I can get some of the cooler characters I’ve missed, particularly the Joker, Betelgeuse, and Agent Smith. And it’ll at least be nice to have the option of playing MultiVersus offline. I’m glad I didn’t pay them any money, though.
Let us know what you think of MultiVersus going offline in the comments!
***
If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
Get Your Geeks + Gamers merch here!
