MultiVersus development studio Player First Games has been acquired by Warner Bros., the game’s publisher. The studio’s co-founders will continue to lead the team. The platform fighter’s second season is set to launch soon, introducing a ranked mode and new characters Samurai Jack and Beetlejuice.
“Our team is excited to join the Warner Bros. Games family, and we feel that this will be great for MultiVersus overall. We are working to make the MultiVersus game experience the best it can be, and having our development team integrated with the publisher is optimum for the players,” said game director Tony Huynh in a statement to IGN.
MultiVersus is a free-to-play, live-service brawler that features characters from various Warner Bros. properties, including Looney Tunes, DC superheroes, Adventure Time, and Rick & Morty. The game has undergone extensive development, launching in open beta in 2022, delaying its first season of updates in response to feedback, and going offline entirely in early 2023 for re-tooling.
The game returned on May 28th of this year with revamped art, new characters, new levels, and a PvE mode. While the initial beta received positive feedback, opinions on the relaunch have been mixed. Our cousins over at Eurogamer were less kind towards the relaunch, calling it a Smash Bros. derivative spoiled by its monetization.
As a fan of Smash Bros., both for its casual couch multiplayer and as an introductory fighting game for my kid, I appreciate having a genre entry like MultiVersus available on PC. However, I can’t see myself leaving Nintendo’s version for a microtransaction-heavy game featuring characters like Jason from Friday the 13th.
