WB Shuts Down Monolith, Player First Games, and WB Games San Diego, and Cancels Wonder Woman - News

by William D'Angelo , posted on 25 February 2025 / 3,552 Views

Warner Bros. Games announced it is shutting down three of its studios. This includes Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and F.E.A.R. developer Monolith Productions, MultiVersus developer Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego.

Monolith Productions' Wonder Woman game has also been cancelled.

"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," reads a statement from Warner Bros. Games sent to Kotaku reporter Ethan Gach.

"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 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 and developed by our world class studios and getting our games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond."

WB confirms Jason's reporting in a new statement

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— AmericanTruckSongs10 (@ethangach.bsky.social) February 25, 2025 at 2:14 PM

A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012 and taking over the hardware estimates in 2017. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel. You can contact the author on Bluesky.

21 Comments

StriderKiwi (on 25 February 2025)

Monolith made some great games. What a damn shame

Spike0503 StriderKiwi (on 26 February 2025)

Agreed. I'm not usually into FPS games but even I enjoyed F.E.A.R. very much back in the day.

Darwinianevolution (on 26 February 2025)

Called it.

Chazore Darwinianevolution (on 26 February 2025)

I saw the writing on the wall when they talked about Wonder Woman. No one really asked for a Wonder Woman game, and with the current political landscape and Marvel/DC movie sales not doing so hot, it doesn't really make sense to make a game like that.

Koragg (on 26 February 2025)

So what happens to the nemesis system?

Blood_Tears Koragg (on 26 February 2025)

WB has that on lockdown till 2036.

Chazore Koragg (on 26 February 2025)

The patent will remain as is until it expires on WB's end. They can either renew it near it's expiry date or let it go into the public for open use.

I don't see them letting it go free down the road though.

mjk45 Koragg (on 26 February 2025)

What's the nemesis system ?

Dante9 mjk45 (on 27 February 2025)

It's the one where if certain enemies survive their encounter with you, they will remember you and develop a hate for you. They will seek revenge.

mjk45 Dante9 (on 27 February 2025)

That's interesting but playing a game where I may have to deliberately make sure no one survives because of the fear that it may lead to a scenario where one day I'm at home and suddenly hear a click of a gun and a voice behind me saying, did you really think that the nemesis systems drive for vengeance would stop at the games MC and not lead beyond it to the real culprit you the player.

Now that you have informed me that scenario is exactly why i'm not playing any more WB games.

Dante9 (on 26 February 2025)

I doubted Wonder Woman's global popularity as a character to begin with, but I'm not a DC fan so maybe I'm way off.

Salnax Dante9 (on 26 February 2025)

It's kind of hard to judge because she's had so much bad luck with cancelled projects, but her 2017 movie did very well, being the top grossing DCEU film ever released in North America and outperforming Man of Steel elsewhere.

Terramlea (on 25 February 2025)

That's when we see fully incompetent leaders... They can print money with Batman Arkam games, Harry potter movies remakes and LOTR games... How can they even lose money with such series ?

Pemalite (on 26 February 2025)

They could have made money and spun the studios off.

Damn shame that we have now lost Monolith, hopefully the developers bounce into new work quickly.

S.Peelman (on 26 February 2025)

“Key franchises”, “DC”, but then cancels Wonder Woman.

WhiteEaglePL (on 27 February 2025)

Wonder Woman doesn't deserve this :(

SanAndreasX (on 26 February 2025)

Only thing WB has that interests me is Mortal Kombat. Hope they spin off Netherrealm Studios before they get hurt. I wish Bandai Namco or some other company would buy NR and all of Midway’s IP. At this point, I’d hope for Bandai Namco or Sega to buy it.