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Multiversus game director Tony Huynh says he knows the forthcoming end of development is “painful for everyone,” players and developers alike, but while it’s okay to express anger and frustration, “threats to harm” members of the development team are not.
“Hey all, I wanted to say a few words as I reflect on the recently announced news about Multiversus,” Huynh wrote on X. “While I’m sad about the outcome, I will forever be grateful for the opportunity given to us by Warner Bros. Games and to each and every developer on the Player First Games and WB Games teams. Also to every IP holder thank you for entrusting us with your babies, we hope we made the characters true to themselves and felt authentic to your fans. I couldn’t be prouder of the work the PFG team did. Their endless creativity and passion never ceased to inspire and amaze me.”
The end of Multiversus was announced last week: The upcoming fifth season will be its last, and while the game will continue to be playable offline “for the foreseeable future,” online play will be gone on May 30. It’s a sad and disappointing end to a game that showed tremendous potential and attracted millions of players when it kicked off in 2022, but then in March 2023 Warner announced it was just an “open beta,” and then took it offline a few months later.
It took almost a year for Multiversus to come back in full release, and the enthusiasm just wasn’t there anymore. Things began to look grim in November 2024, when Warner Bros—which had acquired Multiversus developer Player First Games just four months prior—pinned the blame on Multiversus for a $100 million writedown in its game business, which came on top of a $200 million hit just a few months earlier driven primarily by the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
The end of any game sucks, but the Multiversus situation was especially egregious because it left owners of the $100 Founders Pack stuck with premium currency meant to purchase new characters that will never exist. Tempers are running a little hot, a situation that, as reported by Kotaku, wasn’t improved by a leaked (and widely disputed) list of characters planned for the game, many of which, according to the list, were already complete.
Did I Just Get Scammed? Got Founders Around when Marvin Came Out. Only 12 characters came after. from r/MultiVersus
Huynh apologized for not being able to incorporate everyone’s favorite characters, saying the roster choices were driven by things like development time, community feedback, “working with IP holders” (which seemingly didn’t happen in at least one instance), and whether the development team was “inspired to make the character.” He also touched on the divisive addition of Banana Guard, saying the character was made over a weekend “because the team was enthusiastic about making” it, and that it didn’t come about at the expense of other characters.
“I don’t have the power some of you think I do,” Huynh wrote. “PFG is a highly collaborative team and ideas are encouraged and can come from anyone and we promote delivering value to players. I also hope that the community notices that we try to listen and act. Like any developer we’re limited by time and resources.
“I know that this is painful for everyone, and I know every member of PFG feels it too, but I have to call this out, you’re entitled to what you say and think, but when there are threats to harm it’s crossing the line. I hope that you can take a step back and realize that this is an extremely sad time for the team. I am in deep mourning for the game. Nobody wanted this outcome and it wasn’t from lack of caring or effort.”
Huynh didn’t call out any specific threats made to the development team, but it’s unfortunately not an uncommon occurrence. In 2023, for instance, Ubisoft signed an agreement with police in the UK to fast-track investigation of online harassment and threats, and just a month later Rust developer Facepunch Studios cancelled a planned meet-and-greet with fans because of “an IRL threat.”
Also in 2023, Bungie famously won a $500,000 lawsuit against a “racist shitstain” who’d harassed and threatened Destiny 2 developers, and in October 2024 Wizards of the Coast was forced to take over a popular Magic: The Gathering competitive format because of complaints about card bans that involved “credible threats of physical assault.” The list goes on; GDC’s 2023 State of the Game Industry survey found that 91% of game developers believe player harassment, targeting women and members of the LGBTQ+ community in particular, is a problem for the industry.
The end of Multiversus may also be the end of Player First Games, which is now a game studio without a game—something Huynh alluded to in his conclusion, which lands like a potential final farewell. “Thank you for allowing this dream to become a reality even if for a briefer time than we would have wanted,” he wrote. “I don’t know what the future holds for any or all of us, but I just wanted to say thank you. It has been an honor to work alongside the team at PFG to serve our community and players.”
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Kurt Indovina
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