WB close F.E.A.R. and Shadow of Mordor dev Monolith Productions and other studios

Seriously tough times in the gaming industry, with even more publishers pulling back and closing studios. Now Warner Bros. have confirmed they've closed multiple studios.

First reported by Jason Schreier (Bluesky) of Bloomberg, and then later confirmed in an email to Kotaku. WB have closed Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. These developers between them were responsible for creating F.E.A.R., Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Middle-earth: Shadow of War, MultiVersus and many more.

The statement sent to Kotaku:

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 -– Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC and Game of Thrones. After careful consideration, we are closing three of our development studios – Monolith Productions, Player First Games and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them.

The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman videogame will not move forward. Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities. This is another tough decision, as we recognize Monolith’s storied history of delivering epic fan experiences through amazing games. We greatly admire the passion of the three teams and thank every employee for their contributions. As difficult as today is, we remain focused on and excited about getting back to producing high-quality games for our passionate fans and developed by our world class studios and getting our Games business back to profitability and growth in 2025 and beyond.

Especially frustrating for gamers, because the really fun nemesis system from Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor is patented and it seems WB are now doing nothing with it since the Wonder Woman game was cancelled that was reportedly going to use it. According to Google Patents, WB own the patent until 2036.

Hopefully the people affected will find something again soon. There's been far too much of this happening over the last few years. It's ridiculous. So much knowledge being lost in the process. Developers and publishers can't expect to keep ever increasing their revenue, while losing a lot of the knowledge from the people actually responsible for doing the work.