The Death of MultiVersus should be a lesson for Disney…
On paper, MultiVersus should be a no-brainer of a success. Taking both well-known and obscure characters from Warner Bros. vast IP library (and Lebron James for… some reason…) and throw them together in a pretty decent multi-player Smash Bros. clone should be a formula for at least reasonable success. And yet it clearly wasn’t as it was recently announced less than a year after it’s official launch that MultiVersus will be shutting down in just a few months in May.
Granted it’s nigh-impossible to replicate the success of Nintendo’s own IP party brawler, Smash Bros., but that is contained to Nintendo consoles, there’s lots of other companies that have a wealth of characters they can use to make a similar game. But it’s been tried a few times now and never seems to be successful enough to really have another mascot-filled fighting franchise. Even other well-reviewed games such as Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2 have had trouble finding an audience
For years, fans have been hoping Disney (possibly partnering with long-time videogame partner Square Enix in order to possibly also use Square Enix characters) would make their own Smash Bros., the company certainly has a vast library of both popular and obscure characters to fill such a game not even counting the acquisitions of Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm and Fox. But the failure of MultiVersus to even really get off the ground is a pretty sound lesson on why if in fact they plan to do such a game it’s not an automatic formula for success.
There’s not a simple explanation as to why Smash Bros. has been such a huge and enduring success besides that special Nintendo sauce that is apparent in most of their best titles. Nintendo certainly misfires from time to time but never with Smash Bros. thus far and very rarely with their other key long-running franchises. Maybe this combination of characters thrown together in a frankly not greatly balanced party fighter with even non-Nintendo characters thrown in should feel like some soulless cash grab but it never has. And that authenticity in games that try to be another Smash Bros., even ones that are apparently good, just doesn’t seem nearly as present in other competitors.
Some not incredibly credible rumors of a Disney fighting game cropped up in 2023, but we haven’t heard much of anything since then so any sort of game in development is unlikely. But between MultiVersus dying and just about every game featuring live service as a component either dying a quick death or being canned before it gets out the door for release, the best advice to for Disney doing an online multi-player brawler anytime soon is probably to just not and maybe let their characters guest star in other games instead…
That’s all for today, probably will get in another post next weekend so see ya real soon!
