MultiVersus has garnered some frustration from audiences, after revealing that it was actually in open beta and that it would be shutting down ahead of a relaunch in 2024.

In a blog post, the MultiVersus devs explained that the game as we know it would be shutting down in June, and that the year of access was actually an open beta the whole time.

“We know there’s still a lot of work to do. As a result, we have a clearer view of what we need to focus on, specifically the content cadence of new characters, maps and modes to give you more ways to enjoy the game, along with updated netcode and more matchmaking improvements. We’ll also be reworking the progression system based on your feedback and looking at new ways for you to connect with your friends in the game”, they said.

Now, it’s not as if the whole game is going away- the developers have explained that while online functionality will be gone, MultiVersus local and training modes would still be functional.

They also reassured players that the many purchases made during the Open Beta would carry over into the full release, targeted some time around “early 2024” and that they would still be usable in the offline modes.

Bad Optics

While originally getting praise for deep combat mechanics and a free to play model, Multiversus had come under scrutiny for dropping player counts, averaging between 600-800 daily users.

The title had even won Best Fighting Game at The Game Awards, despite apparently not having launched at all.

While Multiversus’ never really hid that it was actually an open beta, the sudden shutdown doesn’t give the best optics- the game had been running around like a full release with multiple seasons of battle passes and in-app purchases, only to suddenly close down and promise it’ll be back soon.

On Twitter, that’s the major point of contention- selling full-priced microtransactions despite only being in a beta.

“I‘ll be honest i think regardless of how much hype it had selling a battle pass and microtransactions in the 100€ range in an open beta is insane“, writes Twitter user MatttGFX.

In their defense, it’s not uncommon for free to play titles to actually launch with a store- Diablo Immortal had its beta with an in-game store, as did the Devil May Cry: Peak of Combat beta.

However, given how games like Hades or Minecraft remained playable up until their 1.0 release it’s also understandable that the sudden decision to take down the Beta would raise questions.