Monolith Productions and Player First games shut down in WB Games reshuffle

Middle-Earth: Shadow of War developer Monolith Productions and MultiVersus developer Player First Games have both been shut down by Warner Bros. Interactive, as per a report by Jason Schrier at Bloomberg. Consequently, the Wonder Woman game in production at Monolith, which was announced back in 2021, has been cancelled. This shakeup at WB comes after significant losses attributed in part to the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and MultiVersus.

The closure of these studios, as well as Warner Bros. Games San Diego, has been confirmed in an email sent to Polygon. “After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios – Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego,” advises the report. “This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them“.

Furthermore, development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman game “will not move forward“. Allegedly, this is because it is “no longer possible within [WB’s] strategic priorities” for the company to “give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character“. As per a recent report regarding turbulence at Warner Bros.’s gaming division, the Wonder Woman game had experienced a challenging development, including an apparent mid-production reboot following difficulty in implementing WB’s patented Nemesis System.

The closure of Player First Games is surprising, considering that Warner Bros. went to considerable expense to acquire the studio last year. Following a controversial relaunch of MultiVersus which shed much of its playerbase, the game will be shutting down after Season 5. The game ultimately ended up as a financial disappointment, contributing to a $100M loss, according to Warner Bros.

In an email to employees shared by Polygon, Warner Bros. Discovery head of global streaming and games, JB Perrette, stated that the recent failures of much of WB’s output was due to “the product-market fit and quality of too many of our new releases [having] really missed the mark.” That much of the recent failures stem from outgoing WB Games head David Haddad’s bullish pursuit of live-service profits, despite more and more evidence that the market is oversaturated, went typically unmentioned by Warner Bros.

The closure of any studio is a shame, and hopefully the affected employees at Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego can find new roles soon. Rocksteady Studios, the former Batman Arkham developer whose recent live-service flop Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was also instrumental in this recent reshuffle of priorities, will remain open, but has experienced substantial layoffs of its own in recent months. We can expect more investment in existing franchises from Warner Bros.’s games division, however whether the company has learned from the failures of its recent live-service output will remain to be seen.