- Warner Bros closes Monolith, Player First, and WB Games San Diego
- Wonder Woman game canceled due to unsatisfactory progress
- Fans criticize WB’s focus on profit over quality games
Warner Bros has taken shocking steps, has shut down three studios including Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB Games San Diego, and also cancelled the Wonder Woman game. This decision is taken under the strategy which aims to focus on bigger and popular projects.
End of an Era: Monolith’s Closure After 31 Years
This move has left fans disheartened and they felt more sad for the Monolith Productions, which has closed after 31 years, served in the gaming industry for three decades, and gifted the community with remarkable titles like F.E.A.R., Condemned, and more.
The studio was also behind the development of groundbreaking Nemesis System, a unique gameplay mechanic that made opponents evolve based on a player’s actions.
Speaking of Wonder Woman games, Monolith has also been working on it and first announced the game in 2021, but today marks the year of its unexpected cancellation.
However, the game has been struggling, and its progress wasn’t satisfactory despite the fact that Warner Bros had already spent over $100, according to Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier.
The recent report by Bloomberg revealed that the studio couldn’t bring the game together even after making a huge investment. All the struggles and challenges resulted in leadership change, further delays, and other issues made fans think that it wouldn’t ever make it to the launch.
Now this fear has come true. Bloomberg report confirmed that with the closure of Monolith Studio, the game is also gone. It is inevitable to think about the number of employees who got affected or lost their jobs, right now it’s not clear, but players are highly disappointed with this decision of Warner Bros.
Fans React: Disappointment Over WB’s Decision
The company shared a detailed statement, sharing the reason behind this move, as they want to shift their focus towards significant and popular games like Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, and other titles.
Moreover, they stated that the company wants to save money and become more profitable by 2025. Players are frustrated and they have criticized this move, one user replied to the Warner Bros statement reported Kotaku’s Ethan Gach on BlueSky,
“I like how they’re goal is to get their games business back to “profitability and growth” instead of making good games.” Many users negatively responded to the post shared by Jason Schreier, who confirmed the shutdown of studios.
They also showed their support to the developers and employees, and called them hardworking. Some fans even suggested that instead of shutting down completely they could have just sold the studios. Here is a complete statement given by the company:
“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. 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 the teams or the talent that consists within them. The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman video game will not move forward. 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. 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, developed by our world-class studios, and getting our games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.”
