MultiVersusrapidly rose to fame when it became clear that Warner Bros. Games was serious about producing aSmashcompetitor that wouldn’t be limited to Nintendo devices. Featuring beloved and widely recognized characters from IPs such as DC,Scooby-Doo,Tom & Jerry, andLooney Tunes, the game’s open beta has already achieved high praise and remarkable momentum.
Being a new and approachable free-to-play experience that’s surprisingly easy to mod, it didn’t take long beforeMultiVersusbecame a veritable melting pot for a fledgling modding community. Warner Bros. Games is, however, throwing a wrench into the works with its recent announcement that plainly stated that it would issue DMCA strikes against videos and other media that show off moddedMultiVersusgameplay.
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It’s immediately worth pointing out that the vast majority of existingMultiVersusmods don’t affect game balance. In a recent interview with VG24/7, modders talked about this subject and explained how the community is all about character asset replacements and other visual changes, which means theupcomingMultiVersusnerfscouldn’t be reversed, for example. A modder by the name of Ghost explained that they’re not necessarily surprised with WB’s take on the situation, but they certainly are upset about the way this is being handled.
By the looks of it, all the prominentMultiVersusmods aim to alter a character’s model or replace it with an entirely different, custom character model instead. These changes don’t actually feature hitbox alterations, either, which means that mods are entirely local and should not affect gameplay in any way. ThoughMultiVersusalready has a rich character roster, it’s not surprising to see modders such as Ghost using the opportunity to produce all-new custom models for players to download, too.
In fact, modders could feasibly bring community creations to life, such asBun_Boi’s customMultiVersusRaindog skins. As it is, however, it doesn’t seem impossible that Warner Bros. might do everything it can to stop the community at large from interacting with mods in the future. As it is, the situation is mostly unresolved, and neither modders nor players know what to expect from the developer on this front.
Sadly, this likely means that thefanmade Saul Goodman character move set forMultiVersuswill never end up getting made. Naturally, whether WB ends up enforcing DMCA strikes in the future or not wouldn’t necessarily affect the modders, as character reskins aren’t easily detected by the client. The problem, instead, lies in the developer’s ability to diminish the modding community right off the bat, as taking it out of the spotlight might reduce the community’s interest in modding and therefore prevent this niche from growing.
MultiVersusis now available in open beta for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
