Okay, yes, Multiversus has seemingly had a rough go since its relaunch earlier this year, to the point where even publisher Warner Bros. has been on record noting that the game's underperformed. What's a free-to-play fighting game to do in these circumstances? Why, break out the goth girls, of course.
Multiverse Season 4 was unveiled this week, and the devs themselves are calling it "Goth Girl Season" ahead of its November 12 launch. The event is led by two new playable fighters, Raven of Teen Titans and Marceline of Adventure Time, who both certainly fit the bill on the season's title theme. The devs at Player First Games are still unveiling the details, but you can peruse a roadmap on Twitter and peep the first look at Raven gameplay below.
This season's announcement came just before Warner Bros. latest financial report, where CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said (via IGN) noted that the company's gaming division wasn't doing great. "We took another $100 million plus impairment due to the underperforming releases, primarily MultiVersus this quarter," Wiedenfels said, bringing total writedown year-to-date to over $300 million in our games business, a key factor in this year’s studio profit decline."
So did WB see bad financial results and tell the devs to smash glass and hit the emergency goth girl button? Nah, of course not - these big content updates take way too long to design and create to be slapped together for a quick financial boost. But other big changes are coming this season in response to one of the community's big standing complaints: about the grind to unlock new characters.
With the start of Goth Girl Season, the existing fighter currency system is being retired in favor of Fighter Road. The new system is essentially a battle pass letting you unlock every character in the game - up to and including Raven - by earning XP through playing, as the official announcement explains. It remains to be seen if this system is actually friendlier to players than the old one, but first impressions indicate that it's a step in the right direction. Whether it's enough to rebuild the game's momentum following a disappointing relaunch remains to be seen.
