Warner Bros Games is making major changes, closing Monolith Productions, Player First Games and WB San Diego. In addition, development of the new Wonder Woman-game is being halted. This news was confirmed by Warner Bros. following a report by Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier.

Studios closing

Monolith Productions, founded in 1994, is best known for the Middle-earth games Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. The F.E.A.R. and Condemned series also came from this studio. Warner Bros. acquired Monolith in 2004.

Player First Games the studio behind the multiplayer game MultiVersus was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2024. The game will end permanently in May.

Strategic change of direction

In a statement, Warner Bros. Games called the closures a "very difficult decision" and said the company will henceforth focus on four major franchises: Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones.

According to Warner Bros. the decision has nothing to do with the quality of the studios or their employees, but is a strategic refocus.

The Wonder Woman game, which was in development at Monolith, no longer fits within their new priorities, according to the company. Although Wonder Woman is a DC character, the game does not seem to fit the current strategy.

"We recognize Monolith's rich history in creating epic gaming experiences and this was not an easy choice," said Warner Bros.

Internal restructuring

JB Perrette, head of Warner Bros. Games, shared the news in an internal memo obtained by Polygon. He indicated that some employees who will not be fired may be redeployed internally. He also stressed that Warner Bros. wants to focus more on mobile games and restore its reputation in the game industry.

Perrette acknowledged that the quality of recent games did not meet expectations:

"Too many of our recent releases did not feel right to the market and the quality lagged," he said.

"We need to perform better, both for our fans and for our company. Our credibility in the game industry is crucial to secure future investments."

Financial setbacks

A recent report states that the Wonder Woman-game has already cost Warner Bros. more than $100 million, while the game was far from finished. This fits within a broader trend of setbacks at Warner Bros. Games.

Previous projects also underperformed:

• Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League flopped and cost Warner Bros. $200 million.
• Gotham Knights had disappointing sales.
• MultiVersus shut down in May after a difficult launch.

Especially live-service games, such as Kill the Justice League and MultiVersus, failed to achieve great success.

Future plans

David Haddad, the current boss of Warner Bros Games announced in January that he is leaving. He will stay on for another three months to oversee the transition but no successor has yet been named.

Despite the challenges, Warner Bros. Games continues to invest in its four spearheads. There will be a sequel to Hogwarts Legacy, Warner Bros. Montreal may be working on a Game of Thrones title and Rocksteady is said to be considering a new single-player Batman game.

James Gunn, head of DC Studios, revealed that there are "very interesting" DC games in development, although they will not appear anytime soon.