Player First Games announced its platform fighter MultiVersus will be ending its long open beta period. After June 25, Warner Bros.' equivalent of Super Smash Bros. will go offline until its full release expected for sometime in early 2024. 

Director Tony Huynh added that the game will also be delisted from digital storefronts beginning on April 4. Once it's completely offline in June, players will only be able to access the offline training room mode and local matches, along with characters and cosmetics they'd purchased during the beta. 

MultiVersus released in open beta form back in July 2022, and quickly gained a high player count within its first month. During that time, the game released two seasons worth of content and wound up being one of 2022's most-downloaded PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 games in the free-to-play space.

Huynh said the long beta gave Player First a "clearer view of what we need to focus on," such as a reworked progression system and the cadence of releases for new characters, updated netcode, and matchmaking improvements. 

"We do know that this news might be disappointing, but rest assured, MultiVersus will be back," wrote Huynh. "Thank you again to the entire MultiVersus community. We greatly appreciate your passion and excitement and can’t wait to share our next chapter with you."

What's in the future for MultiVersus?

When MultiVersus first launched back in July, it was during a tumultuous time for its parent company Warner Bros. With numerous projects at the company canceled in the wake of its merger with Discovery, Huynh had to address concerns about the game, saying it was exempt from the company's larger (and still ongoing) shifts.

Still, it's worth asking what kind of future the platform fighter is coming back to. Several live service games have shut down within the first few months of 2023, and more are on track to end later this year.

While video games are still said to be a profit point for Warner Bros. Discovery, the publisher has notably struggled with public perception of some of its more recent titles. After being a beta for almost a full year, going away completely for over six months may end up doing MultiVersus more harm than good.