Image: Warner Bros. Games
Warner Bros. Games has announced a series of studio shutdowns.
Warner Bros. Games is shutting down three of its game studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. Monolith was in the midst of creating a new Wonder Woman game, which has now been axed due to its closure. Player First Games had previously announced the shutdown of its first and final game, MutiVersus.
The game publisher is now looking to make more games centered on its key franchises, ranging from Harry Potter to Game of Thrones.
Warner Bros. shuts down Monolith, Player First Games, and San Diego studio
Warner Bros. Games is officially shutting Monolith Productions and Player First Games. According to a statement given to Kotaku, the publisher called this a “strategic decision,” explaining that:
“After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios - Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them."
Monolith Productions has a long and storied history of making video games. The studio is perhaps now best known for making Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War, but was also responsible for creating the Blood and F.E.A.R. game series. In 2021, the studio announced that it was making a game based on DC Comics’ Wonder Woman. As of this week, however, that game has been cancelled.
In the statement, Warner Bros. confirmed as much:
"The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman videogame will not move forward. Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities. This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games."
Player First Games’ first big release was MultiVersus, the platform fighting game featuring crossovers from all corners of Warner Bros. IP. Earlier this year, it was announced that MultiVersus would be going offline on 30 May, 2025, sunsetting the game’s online features for good. On the other hand, Warner Bros. San Diego was reportedly working on an unannounced game before the entire studio was canned.
Warner Bros. said that it was now looking into making more games centered on its key IP, which seems ironic considering MultiVersus’ shutdown. The publisher said: “We have had to make some very difficult decisions to structure our development studios and investments around building the best games possible with our key franchises -– Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones.”
While these studio shutdowns are shocking, they don’t come entirely out of the blue. An earlier report had confirmed that Warner Bros. Games was undergoing internal restructuring in light of a string of recent financial failures, including Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League and MultiVersus.
It looks like Warner Bros. is also doubling down on DC Comics properties, with both NetherRealm and Rocksteady seemingly working on DC games, and more DCU games now in the works.
