When the Wonder Woman game was announced in 2021, I thought, " What a good move; this is easy money.” The fact that Monolith was developing it increased my confidence, as that team made those great Middle Earth games. All in all, Warner Bros. made a very good move because fans wanted to see more of this DC icon, and giving them a competent developer would have given us a good game.
So, naturally, Warner Bros. has decided to lay off Monolith and cancel this highly-anticipated DC game. Because it's Warner Bros., and this company loves to waste money as much as make it.
This company’s scummy moves are far from a secret. After the Shadow of Mordor and War games were made bank, they decided to patent their Nemesis system, one of the most selfish things a game publisher could do. It would have been cool to see other games use this system and add new things, but WB decided this mechanic only belonged to them.
Could you imagine the state of this industry if Capcom were the only company that could make fighting games? Or if God of War was the only franchise that could be a character action game? That would be insane, so seeing Warner Bros. keep a game mechanic locked to their company was a terrible move overall.
At the very least, we would see the Nemesis system implemented in a Wonder Woman game, which makes so much sense. Fans familiar with Diana’s adventures in the comics know she faces various fantastical enemies. She can fight beast people, aliens, and other god-like beings, and it would all make sense.
When leaks claimed that this DC game would have Diana trying to reclaim Themyscira from Circe, that screamed an easy use for the Nemesis system. Sure, Circe is an underwhelming villain, but she’s the perfect excuse to have Diana fight possessed Amazon women. How cool would it have been if these Amazons spouted various insults and showed personality like the orcs from Shadow of Mordor? That idea prints money.
Despite having an idea so easy that it should have worked, the Wonder Woman game immediately looked grim. The basic 2021 trailer quickly became concerning once DC failed to provide more promotional material for the game. Occasionally, we’d see some leaked art for this game, but never anything big from the companies that should be promoting it.
Soon after, reports of the DC game being live-service emerged and fans everywhere immediately bemoaned the move. Warner Bros. claimed these reports were false, but it was hard to believe them after what they did to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Not long after, it was stated that the Wonder Woman game under Monolith had to restart development. Fans tried to be positive about this as Metroid Prime 4 restarted development and is now scheduled for release this year. However, this DC icon doesn’t have the same love and faith as other gaming franchises, so fans were preparing themselves for this game getting axed.
To the surprise of nobody, Warner Bros. has now axed its promising Wonder Woman game by killing developer Monolith. They weren’t alone, as MultiVersus dev Player First Games has also been shut down. Fans already knew that MultiVersus was dead, but this was extra salt in the wound.
Watching Warner Bros. throw away million-dollar concepts from these studios is frustrating. Given the number of franchises this company has, MultiVersus should continue forever. Suicide Squad could have been a fun enough game, but they had to make it a live-service slop connected to the beloved Arkham games. Ironically, Gotham Knights would have been a much better game if they had connected it to Arkham Knight and kept that excellent non-patented combat system.
Now, all we can do is ironically quote a lame Disney Plus Marvel show and think: “What if WB just made that Wonder Woman game?”