Warner Bros. Games is reportedly shutting down three studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and its self-titled San Diego team.
Per Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, the trio of developers will be winding down later this week. Monolith’s Wonder Woman game has also been canceled as a result of the studio’s closure.
“This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that exists within them,” wrote WB Games in a statement. “We greatly admire the passion of these three teams and thank every employee for their contributions.”
How Warner Bros. Games got here
In 2024, Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a massive financial bust for WB Games, and it’s been trying to recover ever since.
Earlier in February, Bloomberg reported on the publisher’s struggles and the situation at its various internal teams. The report came after the departure of games head David Haddad at the end of January, whose tenure was described by some developers as “years of ineffectual trend-chasing and wasted development time.”
According to that report, Monolith quietly rebooted its Wonder Woman game, whose budget was already said to be over $100 million. WB’s statement claimed its desire to deliver the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character…is no longer possible within our strategic priorities.”
The studio’s last game was 2017’s Middle-earth: Shadow of War.
Player First released the platform fighter MultiVersus, first in Early Access in 2022, then as a full release in 2024. The game was already set to be shut down at the end of May, and the studio had been acquired by WB shortly after its official launch.
WB Games was founded in 2019, and was established to work on free-to-play mobile games.
Earlier this week, DC Films co-head James Gunn affirmed the company’s commitment to games and said he spoke with Rocksteady and NetherRealm about new DC titles. According to him, major DC games are a “couple years away,” which may be overly optimistic, given today’s news.