Player First Games has announced Multiversus beta will be ending its services on June 25th. The shutdown isn’t permanent though, as it will reopen as a full launch game in early 2024. This decision is an excellent move for the game to recover its dwindling player base, though it does have its flaws.

Available Modes During the Shutdown

Certain features will become unavailable to the public. Every online mode will be cut off, including casual and ranked. 

The only modes available after the temporary shutdown will be the lab (training mode) and local matches. This lets tournament organizers continue making locals for community support. Any progress/purchases made during the open beta will continue to the game’s full launch. 

Future updates will be postponed to prepare for Multiversus’ shutdown. The next update will occur during the game’s full launch, leaving the current beta in season 2 until further notice.

Major Current Issues in Multiversus

Fans offered tons of feedback from Player First Games to manage for Multiversus. The game has so much potential to be one of the most appealing platform fighters, though several issues need to be handled:

• Tone down the microtransactions. There were varied, detailed costumes for many characters that can only be purchased with premium currency, Gleamium. Each costume ranged between 1500 – 2000 Gleamium ($15 – $20). If the game fully launched with a way to obtain costumes through playing, player motivation to grind matches would grow.
• Produce more effective balance patches. Some characters felt too strong throughout the game’s beta. Only a few overpowered characters were nerfed, such as Jake the Dog, though felt too weak after the balance changes. The other top tiers, Bugs Bunny and Finn the Human, continue to dominate their reign in the game’s meta. This meta trend scared off many new players while annoying pro players.
• Produce consistent company support. Developer communication was changed between the first and second seasons in a major way. The game felt popular with consistent updates and new characters in season one. When season two started, the company went silent and stopped providing weekly updates. Consistent support will help stabilize the player base and make the developers more reliable.
• Develop more simple characters. The DLC characters had lots of complexity with their fighting styles. For example, Rick and Gizmo require to use setup attacks with many projectiles, including portals, ammunition, and popcorn. Many characters have certain effects in different attacks that players must memorize to utilize the whole kit, making them tricky to use. Simplifying the character designs will make them more appealing to players and viewers, similar to Super Smash Bros.
• Fix the online servers. The most cumbersome issue that scared off many players has been its online stability. Despite its rollback netcode, the matches became unstable and inconsistent with freezes and sudden rollback. The lag felt worse when dealing with certain characters like Bugs Bunny, Harley Quinn, Finn, Batman, and many others.

Rebirth of Multiversus

It will be over half a year until Multiversus makes its return. The shutdown is a necessary step to recover the game’s diminishing reputation. While it’s great for the developers to emphasize their focus on Multiversus’ full launch, there are several issues with the game’s closure. 

This decision puts a lot of pressure on Player First Games to construct their whole game properly. The consistent issues that tampered with players’ enjoyment shouldn’t return in the game’s full release. Any problem that is left unfixed will severely weaken the player base growth.

Ending its primary online services forces committed players to wait over six months to play the game again. While its offline play is still available, its online modes were its primary method of play. Being forced to play offline in the era of online gaming puts stress on the players’ patience, demotivating them to play again. 

Its release window is broad and far in the future. This is the first fighting game that confirms its release in 2024. As of yet, no other major game has announced its release. If another influential fighting game releases close to Multiversus’ full launch, it could gravely hurt Multiversus’ popularity.

Player First Games must make their ideal platform fighter as appealing as possible for most gamers to play their game again. With enough feedback from fans, they express such passion for making their game great for the audience to enjoy.

By Brandon Williams

Ever since I've played on the PS2, I've enjoyed a variety of games from the consoles huge library, including Sly Cooper, Jak and Daxter, SMT, and many more. My most played console has been the Nintendo switch, which holds more satisfying animated games for my gaming tastes. My favorite interests include RPGs and fighting games, resulting in the Xenoblade series and Smash Bros as my top favorite games to play.