MultiVersus Director Calls Out Violent Threats Amid Shutdown Backlash And Roster Rumors

MultiVersus’ final season update isn’t even live yet and conversation around the game has already broken down dramatically. Since the team behind the multiplayer game announced it would shut down just a year after returning, online discourse has turned ugly. “When there are threats to harm it’s crossing the line,” wrote game director Tony Huynh over the weekend, amid review bombing on Steam and an uproar from fans who purchased $100 Founder’s packs for the free-to-play Smash Bros.-style platform fighter.

Revealed last week, MultiVersus will go offline at the end of May when season 5 wraps up, just a year after it resurfaced following its first shutdown. The backlash was swift and, in some corners of the internet, outright toxic. Complaints ranged from Warner Bros. not offering refunds, to ongoing performance issues and certain roster choices. Fans wondered why the Banana Guard NPC became a fighter while characters like Daenerys from Game of Thrones never made it into the game.

A debate ensued on the subreddit over whether the game’s $100 Founder’s pack, which included 30 tokens for redeeming new characters, had defrauded players. Some players said they’d never buy a Warner Bros. multiplayer game again. MultiVersus went from a “mostly positive” rating on Steam with over 100,000 reviews to “mostly negative” over the weekend.

But the fallout turned more ugly when a series of anonymous, unsubstantiated comments claiming to be from people who worked on the game directly blamed game director Tony Huynh for all of its problems. It was made worse by a seemingly fake roster of finished characters that “leaked” and circulated over the weekend, which added fuel to fan conspiracies about MultiVersus prioritizing the wrong roster additions.

“I’m sorry if we couldn’t get to your favorite character,” Huynh wrote on X over the weekend. “I do think Aquaman and Lola are really cool and I hope you all check them out. Character selection comes down to bunch of things including development time, listening to what the community wants, working with IP holders and approvals, if there is a cross-marketing opportunity available to support, and of course if the team is inspired to make the character. So a lot goes into to it.”

He continued:

I don’t have the power some you think I do. PFG is a highly collaborative team and ideas are encouraged and can come from anyone and we promote delivering value to players.

I also hope that the community notices that we try to listen and act. Like any developer we’re limited by time and resources. I know that this is painful for everyone, and I know every member of PFG feels it too, but I have to call this out, you’re entitled to what you say and think, but when there are threats to harm it’s crossing the line. I hope that you can take a step back and realize that this is an extremely sad time for the team. I am in deep mourning for the game. Nobody wanted this outcome and it wasn’t from lack of caring or effort.

MultiVersus community manager and game developer Angelo Rodriguez Jr. also came to Huynh’s defense. “I’ve legitimately been losing sleep over the past few days watching as all of [this] has been happening to Tony,” he wrote on X, before going on to praise the director’s devotion to the game and the sacrifices he made on its behalf. “I know things aren’t the best right now and everyone is looking for answers,” Rodriguez Jr. continued. “Receiving threats of physical harm against him is not and will never be the way.”

It’s the second high-profile game Warner Bros. has pulled the plug on this year. It also abandoned Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which won’t receive any new updates but will remain online, after it struggled to win fans in its first year in what amounted to a reportedly $200 million loss for the publisher. The good news is that both games will remain available to play offline, unlike most live-service games that don’t make it.

And not everyone is using MultiVersus’ demise to settle scores or rehash old design debates.” Thank you MultiVersus for the awesome memories,” reads one recent top thread on the subreddit. “Wanted to say thank you to the development team for the probably insane work that they’ve done to make this game,” another began. “It really is a shame that this game is shutting down, but I’m still happy that it happened and that we had the chance to play it. You could really tell that a lot of love was poured into this game.”