Warner Bros. closed three studios and canceled Wonder Woman, which cost $100 million

The Warner Bros. gaming business is in turmoil again — the company has officially canceled Wonder Woman and closed three studios.

The corporation called the decision part of a large-scale restructuring as it wants to focus resources on key franchises. Namely, Mortal Kombat, «Harry Potter», «Game of Thrones», and DC. The closure affected the following game studios:

• Monolith Productions – known for Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor (2014) and Shadow of War (2017). The studio has also developed a unique game mechanic called NemesisThis system creates dynamic and personalized enemies that remember the interaction with the player and develop throughout the game. The mechanic is featured in Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War..
• Player First Games – a team that worked on MultiVersus. The game was successful at launch, but quickly lost its audience. After an unsuccessful relaunch, its servers were shut down.
• WB San Diego – was a studio that specialized in mobile games, but there were no known projects.

Warner Bros. has now scaled back Wonder Woman, announced in 2021, which cost more than $100 million to develop, writes Jason Schreier of Bloomberg. Back in 2024, there were rumors that the game was in crisis. Then Monolith Productions, which has now been closed, rebooted the project and changed directors. Obviously, this did not help «stay afloat.

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.

The decision is very unexpected against the backdrop of a statement by DC Studios co-chairman James Gunn. He said there will be games in the DC Studios universe, Although not soon, the closure of Wonder Woman makes it doubtful that players will see projects in this universe in the near future.

The so-called «strategic change», as Warner Bros. called it, looks like an attempt to cut costs after financial failures. One of the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was the biggest failure, the losses from which are estimated at $200 million. The total losses of the gaming division in 2023 reached $300 million. Also, in April 2025, WB Games President David Haddad will leave his post after 12 years of work.

One of the most successful franchises is Hogwarts Legacy, who helped revive the Harry Potter franchise after failed movies «Fantastic Beasts». Now, Warner Bros is developing Hogwarts Legacy 2 and is preparing for filming of the series «Harry Potter». The company is betting on fewer games, but already successful ones, so DC fans are unlikely to see projects in the near future.

Source: Variety / IGN / The Verge