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Just a month after Warner Bros. Games chief David Haddad announced that he’s stepping down after 12 years in the role, the company is closing its Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego studios, and cancelling the Wonder Woman game first revealed in 2021.
The closures, first reported by Bloomberg, were confirmed by Warner in a statement provided to PC Gamer.
“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,” a Warner Bros. Games spokesman said. “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.”
The rep also confirmed that Monolith’s Wonder Woman game has been cancelled. “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,” the spokesperson said. “This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games.
“We greatly admire the passion of the three teams and thank every employee for their contributions. As difficult as today is, we remain focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans and developed by our world class studios and getting our games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.”
The future of Player First Games seemed in doubt after the shutdown of Multiversus in January. “I don’t know what the future holds for any or all of us, but I just wanted to say thank you,” Multiversus game director Tony Huynh wrote shortly afterward, in what sounded like a farewell message. “It has been an honor to work alongside the team at PFG to serve our community and players.”
The shutdown of Monolith is in many ways more shocking, though. The Wonder Woman game has reportedly been struggling and remained years away from release, but Monolith itself is something of a legendary studio, with games including Blood, Shogo: Mobile Armored Division, NOLF, Tron 2.0, FEAR, Condemned: Criminal Origins, and 2014 GOTY favorite Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor amongst its credits.
But Warner’s been struggling lately, taking a $200 million loss on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and another $100 million writedown driven primarily by the failure of Multiversus. An earlier Bloomberg report cited sources who blamed the company’s videogame woes on a lack of direction under the leadership of Haddad, and while CEO and president of global streaming and games JB Perrette said Warner will “get right back to profitability in 2025,” he acknowledged that “it will take two to three years to rebuild [and] reset to levels we want to be at.”
The one bright spot amidst Warner’s struggles is that Rocksteady, known for the Batman: Arkham games, is reportedly working on a new singleplayer Batman game. But that’s years away from coming to fruition, so it does the company little good right now.
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Kurt Indovina
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