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Warner Bros. Shuts Down Monolith Productions and Player First Games (February 2025)

Warner Bros. Games announced on February 25, 2025 that it would close Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego, and end development of Monolith's Wonder Woman game.
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On February 25, 2025, Warner Bros. Games announced it would close three studios: Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego. The company also said the Wonder Woman video game that Monolith had announced would not move forward. It framed the decision as a strategic change in direction, not a judgment on the teams involved.

What the company announced

The announcement covered three closures and one cancellation. Warner Bros. Games named Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego as studios it would close. It also stated that development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman game had ended. The statement was reproduced in full by Kotaku on February 25, 2025, and was covered the same day by Gematsu.

The company’s own wording on the Wonder Woman project was direct:

“The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman videogame will not move forward.”

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On the decision as a whole, the company said:

“This is a strategic change in direction and not a reflection of these teams or the talent that consists within them.”

The studios and their known work

The table below separates what the February 25, 2025 coverage says about each studio from what it does not address.

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Studio Status announced February 25, 2025 Games named in the coverage
Monolith Productions Closed; Wonder Woman game cancelled Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Middle-earth: Shadow of War (both released titles the studio developed)
Player First Games Closed MultiVersus
Warner Bros. Games San Diego Closed Not stated in the February 25, 2025 coverage

Monolith is the best-known of the three because of the Middle-earth titles, which are released games rather than projects in development. Player First Games is most closely associated with MultiVersus. The February 25, 2025 coverage does not say what happens to MultiVersus’ live service after the closure, so readers looking for current service status should check Warner Bros. Games’ official channels rather than assume an outcome from the announcement.

The reason Warner Bros. gave

Warner Bros. Games presented the closures as portfolio strategy. The company said it would structure its studio investments around four franchises: Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, DC, and Game of Thrones. It also said the games business was aiming to return to profitability and growth.

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That is the company’s explanation, and it is narrower than the context journalists reported. The statement did not describe financial results, project budgets, or development problems, and it did not put a number on the decision. Readers should treat the portfolio rationale as the only reason the company itself gave in the February 25, 2025 statement.

Reported context beyond the statement

Separate reporting filled in details the company did not provide. The Los Angeles Times, in a February 25, 2025 report by Jason Schreier, described the closures as part of a broader refocus on major franchises and cited financial write-downs at the division. The same report, citing people familiar with the Wonder Woman project, said the game had been rebooted, cost more than $100 million, and remained years from release.

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These points come from the outlet and its sources. They are not official figures and are not part of the company’s statement. The report did not provide a write-down amount that could be confirmed against a company disclosure in the coverage reviewed, so this article does not state one.

Warner Bros. had announced the Wonder Woman project in 2021, according to contemporaneous reporting. That date describes when the project was first made public, not when development began or how far it progressed.

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What is not established

  • Employee numbers. The coverage reviewed does not verify how many people were affected by the closures, so no layoff total is given here.
  • Additional statements. No named executive quote beyond the company statement reproduced by Kotaku was confirmed in the coverage reviewed.
  • MultiVersus’ future. The announcement does not address the game’s ongoing service or updates.
  • The Wonder Woman game’s status. The project was cancelled and should not be read as available or in progress.

How to read the record

The clearest sourcing is the company statement, which confirms the three closures, the end of the Wonder Woman project, and the franchise-focus rationale. The financial and development details come from the Los Angeles Times report and should be read as reported claims, with that attribution kept in place whenever they are repeated. Keeping those two categories apart is the simplest way to avoid presenting journalists’ reporting as corporate fact.

For Monolith in particular, the Middle-earth games remain the studio’s most visible legacy. Readers who want to play them can find them through the usual storefronts, but the closure itself does not change the games’ existing releases.

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