We live in an ever-expanding live-service world where games can disappear at a moment’s notice and take away experiences that players spend months and plenty of money on. MultiVersus is just the latest example of this system to enrage fans as the developers announced today it’ll be going away later this year—even if it will return eventually.
After a number of closed beta tests, MultiVersus launched its global open beta last July, bringing in over 100,000 players on PC alone and creating what many thought would be the next hit fighting game. But the strained free-to-play service model and a lack of a clear content roadmap led to the game slowly declining and losing more than 90 percent of its player base on Steam as of February.
Whether that played into Player First Games and Warner Bros. deciding to switch up plans internally will likely never be known, but earlier today, it was announced that MultiVersus will officially shut down on June 25—ending its open beta period. This isn’t the usual conclusion to an open beta, however, since the game will essentially be removed from all platforms for the foreseeable future ahead of a targeted early 2024 full launch.
This basically means players will be unable to play MultiVersus in any significant capacity for at least seven months while Player First Games works on the game and elements like the “content cadence of new characters, maps and modes” to pair with general gameplay improvements.
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There is a portion of the MultiVersus community that is fine with this decision since it will likely lead to the game becoming a better product overall when it does come back. But the implication that the game will so suddenly be unplayable outside of limited offline modes for such an extended period of time after thousands of players have spent plenty of actual money on characters and cosmetics is not sitting well with a larger portion of people.
In response to the announcement, a number of players have demanded refunds from WB and voiced their disappointment with how MultiVersus has been handled as a live-service product since launching in open beta. One user summed it up as “Can’t be a dead game if we close the servers.”
Unfortunately, WB has seemingly covered its tracks here as it notes no refunds are being offered for any Founder’s Packs or Gleamium bundles purchased at any point during the open beta period. It is unlikely this fact will change or be applicable to any real legal blowback since WB has also confirmed all progress and previously earned or purchased content will carry over to MultiVersus’ 2024 launch.
That last fact, and the return of game director Tony Huyhn, does provide some comfort to players who spent time or money to obtain various collectibles during the beta, but it doesn’t change the fact that hundreds of dollars will vanish into thin air for more than half a year for some players.
As an overview, here is what fans can expect from MultiVersus leading up to and post-open beta closure.
- MultiVersus will be delisted from digital stores on April 4.
- No major game updates will be released after this delisting.
- MultiVersus will close its open beta on June 25.
- The season two battle pass has been extended until this closure with limited updates planned.
- All online modes will be unplayable after this closure.
- Players who have downloaded the game prior to the delisting and closure can still redownload the game.
- Players who have downloaded the game will have limited offline access to the game’s training mode and local matches.
