Believe it or not, Warner's Smash Bros-style fighting game Multiversus may be on the verge of a comeback. More than eight months after it was taken offline to "prepare for full launch," the official Multiversus Twitter account has started making a little noise.
Multiversus has charted a strange course since its official reveal in 2021. It launched into open beta in July 2022 and despite some early server issues (because of course there were server issues) it was an immediate hit. Things moved quickly from there: Millions of people jumped into it, new characters were added, two entire seasons rolled out, we declared it "one of the year's best surprises" at the end of 2022—and then in June 2023, Warner pulled the plug on the whole damn thing.
Weird, right? Our fighting game pro Mollie Taylor called the whole thing "bizarre, to say the least."
"Considering there were $100 editions of the game being sold less than a year ago, plus two seasons of a battle pass and premium currency, it feels somewhat cheeky to pull the rug under from financially dedicated players," she wrote. "It was a solid platform fighter, too—despite some teething problems, I gave it a 78 in my MultiVersus review. It even boasted $100,000 tournaments within a couple of months of launch and seemed to have some serious backing behind it."
While it had technically been in open beta throughout, that's an almost meaningless term these days: Activision traditionally holds open beta weekends ahead of every new Call of Duty game, for instance, which in reality are almost purely promotional exercises. Irrespective of that, a minimum six-month shutdown for a game that had got off to such a strong start is... well, bizarre.
Frankly, the end came so suddenly and completely that I half-expected Multiversus was gone for good—that Warner had perhaps decided it was more valuable as a tax writeoff than a live service game. But apparently not: For the first time since June 2023, the Multiversus Twitter account has started making some noise.
It's not much, but since then the account has been replying to numerous followers. It hasn't said much, but it has said—and I quote—"It's real."
Oh, it’s real.March 5, 2024
This Twitter action isn't the only sign of an imminent return to action for Multiversus. A few days ago, the Multiversus leaks account MultiverSusie (via The Gamer) noticed the game had returned to the "free games" section of the Epic Games Store, although the actual link was invalid. The listing has since been taken down.
An imminent comeback would fit with the "early 2024" timeline provided when Multiversus was taken offline, and also with Warner's new strategy of focusing on free-to-play and live-service games over big-budget premium releases like Suicide Squad. Assuming it's happening, it'll be very interesting to see how the game has changed since last we saw it—and how players will react to its return. So far there seems to be genuine excitement at the prospect, but whether that will add up to the huge audiences Multiversus attracted when it first went live remains to be seen.
There's been no announcement from Warner about what's going on with Multiversus at this point, but I've reached out for more information and will update if I receive a reply.
