Warner Bros. Interactive announced in March that the servers for its gameMultiVersuswould soon close, much to some fans' dismay. June 25 is the expected shutdown day, just under a year from the open beta’s release. While the developers promiseMultiVersuswill return in 2024, it’s integral that the game comes back with a bang.
WhenMultiVersusfirst debuted, it was largely welcomed into the cross-platform fighting genre. The key factors were likely due to the open beta being free-to-play, cross-platform integration, and the allowance for skill expression across a diverse cast of characters. The constant updates, seasonal content, and new characters certainly didn’t hurt the game’s performance either. However, with the news that the game will soon be unplayable,MultiVersuscould face problems retaining its audience.
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MultiVersus' 2024 Launch Needs Sensation
It’s much too early to say for certain if most of the player baseMultiVersusgarnered over the past year will return in 2024, especially after seeing a nearly 100% decrease in daily players in February. At its peak, the brawler saw over 150,000 players concurrently, but as of May 2023 only has around 220 live, according to SteamDB charts. If Warner Bros. Interactive isn’t careful, it could very well see thatMultiVersus' release is dead before it ever arrives.
To build excitement toward the official launch of the game, the developers must guarantee that there is something fresh to look forward to, other than polished versions of the current content. For a game that markets heavily around its personalities, that means it should heavily tease the launch of long-anticipated characters while bringing in a few unexpected ones. For example, data miners have speculated for over a year thatStranger Thingscharacters would be implemented intoMultiVersuswhich is leaving many eager to see how someone like Eleven would interact withMultiVersus' established roster.
The beta for Warner Bros. Interactive’s platform fighter has already done an excellent job of showcasing characters from a variety of different shows, movies, and comic books and pitting them against one another. After all, the excitement that was seen surrounding characters from Warner Bros. entertainment franchises beingadded toMultiVersussuch as LeBron James, Batman, and Gizmo cannot be understated.
The second most obvious solution for its return isadding new game modes toMultiVersussuch as Tournaments or story-rich modes. Perhaps tournaments could be styled similarly to howRocket Leaguehandles its tournaments with different brackets and unique rewards. Alternatively, ranked contenders could earn Gleamium upon securing a win while more casual tournaments could grant players gold.
Venturing down a story-driven path could prove a bit more difficult for the developers, but definitely holds potential due to the voice actors and array of characters at its disposal. It could be funforMultiVersus' fans to learn the lorebehind how individual characters ended up in the game. Furthermore, the biographies in the open beta hint at something called the Nothing that looms over all these Warner Bros. properties. LeBron’s in-game bio states that he is “facing a new threat” and Tom and Jerry’s describe them as being “great champions…in the battle against the Nothing.”
Regardless of what changes may come to the game, it’s clear that Warner Bros. Interactive has plenty of room left to grow, should they choose to. The game could certainly return with a splash come the first quarter of 2024 if Warner Bros. Interactive continues to marketMultiVersus' playable charactersduring its downtime, add new modes, and make quality-of-life changes.
MultiVersusopen beta closes on May 21, 2025 and re-releases early 2024 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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