MultiVersus is being delisted and going offline to relaunch in 2024
by Danny Craig
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Warner Bros. Games
The Warner Bros. free-to-play fighter is being pulled from online storefronts on April 4, 2023, with its online services going offline for a “relaunch” in early 2024.
The details:
- In a new blog post, Tony Huynh, co-founder/CEO of Player First Games, announced that the game’s open beta would be removed from stores and closed temporarily after almost nine months. The game will still be playable for those who already own the title, but on June 24, its online services will be suspended, leaving most of the game’s modes unavailable. Players will still be able to access the training room, local multiplayer, and all cosmetics and characters that they own.
- The full release of the game is planned to include new characters, maps and modes, updated netcode, more matchmaking improvements, and a reworked progression system. Huynh also confirmed that all player progression and content from the beta will be carried over to the full game, but that no refund policies will be changing as a result of the closure, meaning that players will need to go through the refund process for their selected storefronts to check if they’re eligible.
- The post is the first update fans have received since November 2022, when season 2 of the game arrived with the introduction of Marvin the Martian as a new fighter. The beta got off to an incredible start with 153,433 players jumping into the game a day after release but has since declined by over 99% with 710 concurrent players on March 28 according to SteamDB. Although a drop-off was to be expected, it appears that the steep decline was aided by a lack of content, with season 2 bringing a single character and season 3 being delayed before its expected launch in March, which has since been canceled in favor of extending season 2 until the game’s shutdown.
Other recent reboot and shutdown announcements:
- The development of CD PROJEKT’s Witcher co-op title, Project Sirius, has been rebooted after spending $10 million on the title so far. The publisher states that its Boston studio is "forming a new framework” for the project, although, it isn’t yet clear how much the game will differ from the original co-op PvE vision.
- Three Battlefield titles will have their online services suspended by the end of 2023. Bad Company 1 and 2, and Battlefield 1943, will no longer be available for purchase online as of April 28, with the full-service shutdown happening on December 8, rendering 1943 officially unplayable and Bad Company 1 and 2 locked to their single-player campaigns.