Warner Bros Acquires MultiVersus Developers
Player First Games, who are best known for the Smash Bros. competitor ‘Multiversus’ have officially been acquired by Warner Bros. as part of a greater push into free to play games for the publisher. You would be forgiven for assuming that Warner Bros. already owned the studio considering that huge characters from their own IPs are part of ‘Multiversus’. This includes Super Shaggy, Batman and even Tom & Jerry. Until now, however, the studio has remained independent while licensing out WB characters from the publisher.
Image by Player First Games
Now that Warner Bros. officially own the studio, however, there’s likely to be many more characters from the studio’s franchises being added to the roster. This move likely comes as part of WB’s new initiative to move away from AAA games to focus more on mobile and free to play titles that they announced back in March. While MultiVersus isn’t quite as popular as it once was in its initial beta release, it’s still pulled in steady player numbers since its free to play relaunch in May (another key reason why WB wanted to buy the studio.
Image by Player First Games
It doesn’t seem like much is going to change for the studio itself or MultiVersus itself just yet considering how closely Player First were working with WB previously anyway. Season 2 of the game is set to start soon- with new characters Samurai Jack and Beetlejuice joining the lineup. Hopefully, MultiVersus manages to stay popular enough to avoid being shut down like mobile offering Mortal Kombat: Onslaught, which was confirmed to be ending service earlier this year. There were also reports that the mobile development team for that game were all laid off, but this has yet to be confirmed.
Image by Player First Games
As WB push even further into their free to play mobile strategy, its likely that we’ll see more battle pass/season pass/microtransaction filled offerings from them in the coming years. Whether this strategy will succeed remains to be seen but, as long as MultiVersus remains reasonably popular, it should be receiving frequent updates in the years to come- especially considering how committed Player First appear to be.
