Is the Nemesis System Lost? (WB Games Studio Shutdowns)
Warner Bros. Games shut down Monolith Productions (Shadow of Mordor), Player First Games (MultiVersus), and WB San Diego (mobile/free to play games). For some context, Monolith Productions formed back in 1994 before they were taken in by Warner Bros. Games in 2004. Player First Games was acquired in July 2024. WB San Diego was founded in 2019.
The Wonder Woman game announced back at The Game Awards in 2021, was also cancelled as it was being developed by Monolith Productions. This was going to be the first game in eight years that was going to feature the Nemesis System.
For those unfamiliar with the Middle-Earth games created by Monolith, the Nemesis System is a gameplay mechanic where enemies you’ve fought before will remember you. So in the Middle-earth games, if you beat down an orc and he ran off, the next time you see him he’d remember that encounter and mock you for it.
The same went for if an enemy beat you down and won, the next time you’d come across him, he’d bring up the previous situation and taunt you endlessly. It’s an incredibly unique and complicated system that was used for the two Middle-earth games then was never seen again after Warner Bros Discovery patented the Nemesis System in 2016.
A Wonder Woman game with the Nemesis System would have been incredible. But now we’ll never see it. We’ll come back to the Nemesis System and what’s going to happen to it, but let’s go back to studio shutdowns for now.
Jason Schreier of Bloomberg broke the news this Tuesday stating that WB Games shut the studios down to “reflect a refocusing of the games division on major franchises such as Harry Potter, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones and DC Comics, primarily Batman.”
The WB head of games and streaming, JB Perrette said, “We need to make some substantial changes to our portfolio/team structure if we are to commit the necessary resources to get back to a ‘fewer but bigger franchises’ strategy.”
Last year in November, WB CEO David Zaslav admitted that their games business is “substantially underperforming its potential.” This was after MultiVersus and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League released and it was revealed that those two titles lost WB Games more than $300 million.
In WB’s earnings call November 7 2024, Zaslav had said, “I think we’re through some of the worst — and it hasn’t been pretty — on the gaming business. But we have four games that are really powerful and have a real constituency that love them, and we’re going to focus on those four primarily. We’re going to go away from trying to launch 10, 12, 15, 20 different games. I think we have a real chance now with focus to have the gaming business be steadier.”
“We have four strong and profitable game franchises with loyal, global fans: Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, and DC, in particular, Batman. We are focusing our development efforts on those core franchises, with proven studios to improve our success ratio.”
Clearly they were not through the worst, seeing the decision they made this week. Warner Bros. Games gave a statement to Kotaku on their decision not even a year after their previous sentiment.
“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.”
The remaining studios under WB Games are now WB Games Los Angeles/San Francisco/Boston/Albany/Montreal, Avalanche, Netherrealm, Rocksteady, and Tt Games.
Now the biggest question with the studio shutdowns is what is going to happen with the Nemesis System? Well unfortunately, the patent for the system will be owned by Warner Bros until 2036. Specifically, August 11, 2036.
People had already been frustrated with WB Games for patenting such a unique system then doing nothing with it for years and now it seems the system will go even more unused. Warner Bros. also owns the rights to Wonder Woman’s films and most likely video game franchise as well, so unfortunately no one can scoop up the game to finish and publish.
Gail Simone, comic book writer known for Bird’s of Prey/Batgirl/Wonder Woman, had been serving as a consultant for the cancelled Wonder Woman game. She spoke on the video game’s progress and said, “The game was gorgeous and expansive. It was beautiful to look at. I am not going to give details for a number of reasons, but every effort was made to make this not just a great game, but a great WONDER WOMAN game. A showpiece epic.”
“And all of that was because of the team. Everyone who worked on it brought their a-game. Programmers, artists, designers, everyone. I don’t know that I have ever worked with a team that cared more about making sure the end product was perfect.It was a dream come true. Wonder Woman had a dream team and they put their all into it. They made sure it had WW and DC lore on every aspect of the game.”
“It was a thrill and honor to work with them.I know there’s a lot of finger-pointing going on, but everyone I worked with from Monolith and WB both was enthusiastic and supportive. Everyone wanted to make the best game ever.Sometimes, you give your all and it doesn’t work out.”
“But that was an amazing team and I can only hope they continue to make brilliant games. Someone is going to snap them all up and set a new industry standard, I know it.”
I’m genuinely hoping that the Monolith team is able to find a new home soon, though I know it won’t quite be the same without having ownership of the Nemesis System they created.
