As you may have heard, Warner Bros. Discovery shut down a few development studios last week. Among them was one of my all-time favorites, Monolith Productions. In addition to Monolith’s closure, their Wonder Woman project was also canceled so it was a multi-hit blow to the industry.
You can find plenty of exposes and thinkpieces regarding this closure and the larger issues at WB in general and WB Games in specific but this isn’t one of those types of articles. This is just a long-time gamer and game developer mourning the loss of an absolute titan.
One look at their catalog will tell the story. I’ve been a fan of theirs since their first game, Blood. I vividly recall my brother’s excitement when we won a copy of the game along with a limited edition t-shirt that featured the box art’s bloody handprint. From there, they developed Claw, Shogo: Mobile Armor Division, the beloved No One Lives Forever games, the iconic F.E.A.R. series, the brutal Condemned duology, the underappreciated Gotham City Impostors, and the Shadow of Mordor games which introduced the incredible Nemesis system. And this is just a sampling of their releases.
It was an early dream of mine to maybe one day work at Monolith. With each new release, I felt a pang of jealousy at what the studio had the opportunity to do and the work they pulled off. Throughout the past two years, so many amazing studios—including my former home, Volition—have been shuttered. For whatever reason, Monolith’s closure hit me especially hard. They were a studio you kept an eye on. When it was announced they were doing a Wonder Woman game, I couldn’t wait. I’ve read articles detailing what happened through the game’s development—some of which resonated hard with me—but I was still excited to see what that studio would have done with that character.
To find some element of positivity here, the folks who made those beloved games are still around. In fact, some of the key people behind Monolith started a studio under EA not that long ago. That said, I am fully aware of how certain people at a certain time in a certain place is a kind of magic. Magic that can be impossible to ever capture again.
Rest in Peace, Monolith. Your work was beloved by many. In a long run of truly sad times in the gaming industry recently, your imagination, your quality, and your legacy make your closure an especially down moment. You shined bright and your light will be missed.
