MultiVersus Developer Player First Games Has Been Acquired By Warner Bros.

Player First Games, the studio behind MultiVersus, a platform-fighter powered by a strong treasure trove of characters and IP’s to lean on and gameplay solid enough to match up to Smash Bros., has been acquired by Warner Bros.

The studio will continue to be run by its current leadership and co-founders Tony Huynh and Chris White, who will also remain in their current roles, with Huynh as the studio head and White as head of technology.

Though now they will report to Carlos Barbosa, vice president and head of Warner Bros. Games San Diego.

“We have worked with Player First Games over several years to create and launch MultiVersus, and we are very pleased to welcome this talented team to Warner Bros. Games,” said WB Games president David Haddad.

“The bright and creative team at Player First Games adds to our extensive development capabilities.”

It’s hardly a surprising acquisition in one sense, when you consider that PFG (Player First Games) has had huge creative control with Warner Bros. owned IP in order to create MultiVersus over the years. Sure it was all done in collaboration, but having PFG totally owned by Warner Bros allows WB to definitively put its foot down, should it ever feel the need to. You could argue this acquisition is about control, more than anything else.

You might also argue it’s about WB future-proofing itself. PFG created an excellent game in MultiVersus. It hit a quality bar no one could’ve expected from it. WB wants to keep a talented team like that under its own roof, before they secured a contract to go make a hit game for a different publisher.

On the acquisition, Huynh says PFG is excited about its new parentage, and that “We [PFG] feel this will be great for MultiVersus overall. We are working to make the MultiVersus game experience the best it can be and having our development team integrated with the publisher is optimum for the players.”

Your mileage may vary with how true Huynh’s words ring with you, but no matter the case it’s hard to see this acquisition as wholly good for PFG.

Warner Bros. has played its own part in the streak of mass layoffs in both the gaming industry and the film industry, and recent reports about the company splitting into two halves could be a sign that more layoffs are to come.

PFG is now vulnerable to that, and everything else that happens to Warner Bros in the future. Perhaps once it was more often the case that the backing of a big corporation meant stability, but that’s not been the case of late.

Hopefully though, Huynh is right, and this is good for PFG and MultiVersus going forward. Better that than another story about a game studio being shut down by a parent company only a few years after it was acquired.

Source – [Business Wire via Gematsu]