Warner Bros. was reportedly working on a Mario Kart-like racing game featuring WB characters before closing down the studio that was developing it. Earlier this year, Warner Bros. unceremoniously shut down Monolith Productions and its development on the Wonder Woman game, along with Multiversus studio Player First Games and Warner Bros. San Diego Studios, which had a game in development that will also never see the light of day.
According to Sacred Symbols podcast host Colin Moriarty, Warner Bros. San Diego Studios was working on this Mario Kart-like racing game that would’ve featured famous characters from across the studio’s history (kind of like Multiversus). The studio was opened in 2019 and it’s understood that it was working on mobile games. However, this would change over the years to evolve into a full-fledged kart racer video game.
Multiversus obviously took a lot of inspiration from Nintendo’s Super Smash Bros. franchise and became a big success, at least when it released in early access as a fresh new experience. Upon the game’s full release, it failed to garner the same level of attention and acclaim, reporting significantly lower player numbers than before.
Naturally, Warner Bros. would probably try and capitalise on Multiversus‘ initial success by dipping its toes back into Nintendo’s library for inspiration, reportedly leading to a racing game taking notes from Mario Kart, only this time with iconic WB characters populating the racer roster. Since Multiversus failed to meet the company’s expectations and the studio that developed the game was shuttered, there was probably little hope that Warner Bros. San Diego Studios could also capture lightning in a bottle.
As if things couldn’t get any more unfortunate at Warner Bros., Monolith Productions’ signature Nemesis system which was used in the Middle-earth games is now locked behind a patent at the company until 2036, meaning no other game developers will be allowed to use the system until then.
Source: Sacred Symbols Podcast
