Warner Bros. Games' brand new platform fighter MultiVersus and Riot Games' upcoming Project L both may have opened a new avenue for upcoming fighting games by being free-to-play. The fighting game genre has often stuck to its guns in the past with its DLC releases, opting to release new characters, costumes, and stages through season passes as they come. The latest entries in the genre are looking to change how fans view the release cycle of fighting games, transitioning the genre to a free-to-play system over the traditional DLC releases.
MultiVersus's soft launch from its open beta allowed players to experience the game's initial offerings as well as test the title's opening roster of characters, inviting fans of numerous Warner Bros. IPs to dive right into the improbable dream matches created by the multitudes of character crossovers. Perhaps one of its biggest attractions was its availability to players, eschewing a price tag at launch in favor of a free-to-play market system not unlike that seen in Brawlhalla. Riot Games would later follow suit in confirming what most fans of League of Legends suspected.
Project L was announced back in 2019 as Riot Games' upcoming fighting game project centered in the world of League of Legends. Following from its history with League of Legends, Riot Games confirmed that their upcoming Project L will be free-to-play. With fighting games mostly sticking to the seasonal DLC model, both platform fighters are the biggest steps out of the norm for the genre. Project L and MultiVersus going free-to-play may provide a litmus test as developers look to these titles in an effort to gauge the genre's future.
MultiVersus & Project L's Free-To-Play Impact On Fighting Games
The Japan Fighting Game Publishers Roundtable 3 held a discussion on free-to-play systems in fighting games, with Tekken director Katsuhiro Harada discussing his previous attempt with Tekken Revolution's free-to-play system. This was compared to "an arcade cabinet" where players paid for the ability to play more as Harada cited the challenge in properly monetizing the title. Harada would go on to say, "If Project L is free-to-play and is a success, it could completely shake how fighting games are made in the future." With all eyes on Project L, MultiVersus beat it to the punch as the first true test of free-to-play in fighting games. The results of this test, however, can be deceiving.
The number of characters MultiVersus could add to the game down the line along with its barrier of play being non-existent make it an early test for what other fighting games may be able to expect, but at the same time, this may inflate the expectation of success. One of MultiVersus's key factors behind its popularity is due to the number and scope of IPs under the Warner Bros. umbrella that are represented within the title. The popularity of characters such as Bugs Bunny and Shaggy as well as celebrities like Lebron James help catapult the game's outreach when mixed with its free-to-play nature, giving MultiVersus an advantage over most titles in its genre that make a comparison inequitable. While MultiVersus could take Super Smash Bros.' crown, Project L may prove to be the first true test for free-to-play fighting games.