Monolith Productions’ Wonder Woman game has had its story details and concept art leaked by an online survey, it seems. If real, the game is set to feature “a predominantly female set of villains” in an open-world action adventure.

Wonder Woman game concept art leaked alongside story

Screenshots of the survey were originally shared on Reddit. We won’t embed anything here due to potential copyright strikes but a copy can be found on ResetEra. The survey also contains concept art, which showcases the open world of Themyscira inspired by Greek mythology.

As for the story, it’ll feature villains like Circe, Medusa, and Cheetah. Circe invades Wonder Woman’s homeland, prompting her to return to Themyscira and take down her foes. The game will feature “fast-paced, free-flow combat with devastating combos and powerful weapons,” including Lasso of Truth.

Wonder Woman will also feature Monolith’s signature Nemesis System, with procedurally generated allies and enemies. Additionally, “iconic” DC characters will make an appearance.

Fans are speculating that either the leak stems from an old survey or Wonder Woman is still in early development because it asks respondents questions like what kind of attacks and abilities they expect the character to use during combat.

It was recently reported that Wonder Woman is in development hell, so make of this what you will.

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Monolith Productions’ Wonder Woman game might be a long way from release, if a new report is anything to go by. The title, which was first announced in December 2021, is reportedly going through development troubles — something fans have come to expect from publisher WB Games.

Wonder Woman is a single-player game

The aforementioned report comes from Kinda Funny Games’ Greg Miller. Discussing the upcoming Summer Game Fest during an episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast, the team was speculating what we’ll see at the event. At one point, Wonder Woman was brought up, in response to which Miller said that he heard from an insider that the project was in development trouble. He doesn’t think we’ll see it anytime soon.

We haven’t seen or heard anything about Wonder Woman since its announcement. However, WB Games did break silence in November 2023 to confirm that it won’t be a live service experience. A job advert gave birth to speculations that Wonder Woman will follow the footsteps of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, but WB Games insists that it won’t.

“Wonder Woman is a single-player action-adventure game set in a dynamic open-world,” WB Games said at the time. “This third person experience will allow players to become Diana of Themyscira and introduce an original story set in the DC Universe, while also featuring the Nemesis System. Wonder Woman is not being designed as a live service.”

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Warner Bros. has denied that its Wonder Woman game will be a live service product. Speculations of a live service title stemmed from a job advertisement published by developer Monolith Productions, which sought a lead software engineer — specifically for Wonder Woman — who is proficient in maintaining “a live software product.”

Wonder Woman game not designed with live service in mind

In a statement to IGN, Warner Bros. not only shut down the aforementioned speculations but also said that Wonder Woman isn’t being designed as a live service title to begin with. The job description in question has since been updated to remove any mention of a live product, so it’s likely that Monolith Productions used text from a prior job advertisement and didn’t update it accordingly.

“Wonder Woman is a single-player action-adventure game set in a dynamic open-world,” reads WB Games’ statement. “This third person experience will allow players to become Diana of Themyscira and introduce an original story set in the DC Universe, while also featuring the Nemesis System. Wonder Woman is not being designed as a live service.”

Wonder Woman was announced at The Game Awards 2021, but there have been no updates since. Platforms and release date window have yet to be revealed.

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Monolith Productions’ upcoming Wonder Woman game could be a live service title, according to a new job listing. The listing appeared just days after publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment reaffirmed it would be transforming its biggest franchises into live service games.

Wonder Woman live service could be part of the Nemesis System

The developer is looking for a person who would preferably have “experience helping maintain a live software product or game”, as spotted by WCCFTech in the job description for the Lead Software Engineer (Gameplay). Wonder Woman was first announced in 2021 as a single-player, open-world, action game but few details have been revealed since then. It’s unknown what form the live service could take, but it could be an expansion of the popular Nemesis System.

The Nemesis System first appeared in Monolith’s Middle-earth games. The system would randomly generate Orc enemies that would react to the player’s actions and create their own career path. In Middle-Earth: Shadow of War, players could then recruit the generated Orc Captains into their squads.

Wonder Woman will also have the Nemesis System according to the job description. This describes a person set to “lead the team responsible for core gameplay systems inherent to Monolith’s proprietary engine, including combat, movement, the Nemesis system, and more.”

The reports come just a week after Warner Bros. said it wanted to “transform” its biggest franchises into live service games. The publisher has seen recent live service success with Mortal Kombat 1, although there have been complaints from players over its emphasis on microtransactions.

Despite plenty of player criticism, there will also be live service features in the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. These will include a Battle Pass and further live service post-launch content, although further details on this will be revealed in later installments of the Suicide Squad Insider video series.

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Warner Bros. Games has announced that it has tapped former Santa Monica Studio director, David Hewitt, to lead Middle-earth developer Monolith Productions.

Hewitt will be overseeing Monolith’s development team as it works on AAA projects. He has also been tasked with shaping “the ongoing studio culture,” according to a press release. Reporting to Ben Bell, Vice President of Production at WB Games, Hewitt will work with Monolith’s creative and technical teams to “set studio strategy and execution of the art, engineering, design and production teams.”

“We are thrilled to have David join and lead the talented team at Monolith,” said Bell. “His extensive product development leadership, making amazing games people love to play, is an ideal match with the dynamic team at Monolith. We are going to continue to build upon Monolith’s celebrated heritage by elevating the skilled studio leadership to make their next generation of games.”

“I have been a fan of Monolith for many years due to the long list of great games they have developed, so it is extremely exciting to join this storied team,” said Hewitt. “I’m truly inspired and looking forward to working with this team to focus and build upon on a new vision to make excellent games with the support of Warner Bros.”

Hailing from Australia, Hewitt spent 10 years at Santa Monica Studio in various roles. He resigned in August 2021, after having served three years as Director of Product Development.

Monolith hasn’t released a new game since Middle-earth: Shadow of War, which launched five years ago.

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Former Monolith Productions VP and studio head, Kevin Stephens, has been tapped by Electronic Arts to lead a new studio dedicated to open-world action-adventure games. The unnamed studio is based in Seattle, where Stephens will join fellow Monolith alumni, Samantha Ryan.

“Kevin joining forces with Samantha and the incredibly talented teams at Electronic Arts adds even more depth to our creative collective,” EA chief studios officer Laura Miele told Games Industry. “Kevin is an exceptionally talented game developer leader and we look forward to supporting him while he builds his team. As someone known for his open world action-adventure games, we know players will be eagerly awaiting more details on this new studio and its projects.”

In a statement provided to Games Industry, Ryan said that action-adventure is a “hugely important” genre – one that EA is keen to continue exploring.

“Players and fans of those games are so passionate and it’s also one of my personal favorite genres,” Ryan added. “We’ve also recently had success with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, and we would love to entertain more fans with similar interests.”

According to Ryan, EA is still figuring out what kind of games the studio will produce within the genre.

“We’re still figuring out a lot of foundational questions,” she continued. “How big? What games? How fast to grow? Kevin and I both know how important it is to get the foundations of any studio ‘right’ and he’ll take his time to figure it all out. When you rush, you don’t give yourself time to be thoughtful. Why rush?”

It’s safe to say that the studio’s first project is a ways off.

[Source: Games Industry]

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Warner Bros. Interactive, WB Games, and its various studios are set to be broken up in some fashion as part of AT&T’s larger plan to sell and merge WarnerMedia with Discovery. While we don’t know the full scope of how it will affect WB Games, it’s been confirmed that the sale will include “some but not all” of Warner Bros. Interactive and WB Games.

WB Games is getting broken up somehow due to AT&T’s WarnerMedia-Discovery sale/merger. “Some of the gaming arm will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company,” rep tells Axios’ @sarafischer. No further info. WB Games lists 11 studios, games for all kinds of IP, devices

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) May 17, 2021

When asked for comment by Axios, a rep simply said “Some of the gaming arm will stay with AT&T and some will go with the new company.” They did not further elaborate on the details. Axios’ Stephen Totillo says that there are 11 studios listed under WB Games, including Avalanche (Hogwarts Legacy), NetherRealm (Mortal Kombat), Rocksteady (Batman Arkham) and a variety of others. It’s unclear how the sale to Discovery and splitting of the gaming division will impact upcoming games from the assorted studios.

The sale as a whole is part of AT&T getting out of the media business, so it’s curious that the sale and merger with Discovery wouldn’t include everything all up. The rep’s quote specifically says some will stay with AT&T, which is an odd choice given the aim the this sale and merger being leaving the media business. This leaves open questions about which studios are being left out and where they’ll end up once the dust has settled. It also brings back the rumors that Warner Bros. Interactive had interested buyers from mid last year. At the time, it was reported that AT&T had decided to hold onto WB Games, but this now confirmed deal says they’ve made a shift once again as they get out of media altogether.

With so many moving pieces, it could be some time before we see the full fallout of what this sale and merger actually means for the gaming division of WarnerMedia.

Additionally, this makes some interesting changes to ownership of DC comics and its properties, which are now co-owned by Discovery.

Correcting part of this tweet:

1) The sale includes some of Warner Bros. Interactive/Warner Bros. Games, but not all.

2) The sale does include DC Comics. Discovery, through the new venture, now effectively co-owns DC Comics with WB.

3) Rooster Teeth is part of the sale, yes.

— julia alexander (@loudmouthjulia) May 17, 2021

The affected studios from this sale include:

• Avalanche Software
• Monolith Productions
• NetherRealm Studios
• Rocksteady Studios
• TT Games
• WB Games Boston
• WB Games Montréal
• WB Games New York
• WB Games San Diego
• WB Games San Francisco

We’ll be watching for additional updates as to which studios are included in the sale and what will happen to the remaining ones that weren’t.

[Source: NYT]

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Following USPTO’s approval of WB Games’ patent application for the Nemesis System, the publisher has attracted criticism from fellow industry professionals, who’ve pointed out that a lot of WB’s games have been built upon borrowed ideas and mechanics.

“This is really gross, especially for a franchise that built its brilliant Nemesis System on top of a whole heap of mechanics replicated from other games as all games do,” wrote Thomas Was Alone developer, Mike Bithell. “Because that’s how culture and creativity works. Be a better neighbor, WB.”

Riot Games’ Cat Manning expressed concerns about the broad language used in the patent, which would make things difficult for other studios, especially indie developers who don’t have the funds to fight legal battles.

“Hey, this f****** sucks,” wrote Manning. “I looked at the patent and it’s so broad as to be absurd! Multiple other emergent narrative systems that I have seen and worked on could be described with their language! It probably would not be legally enforceable but I and other indie devs don’t have the money to find out!”

Manning added that the patent could hamper creativity and innovation because it’s broad enough that it could end up being “a license to stop ANY similar work from being developed.”

Patenting gameplay mechanics is nothing new. As folks over at Video Games Chronicle have pointed out, publishers like Bandai Namco, Electronic Arts, Sega, and Microsoft have all patented ideas in the past. However, not all patents have resulted in legal battles.

Whether WB Games plans to enforce its patent or not remains to be seen.

[Source: VGC]

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It’s official. The gameplay feature known as the Nemesis System now belongs to Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War publisher, WB Games.

After several attempts to patent the system since 2015, the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) finally added its seal of approval this past Wednesday, February 3rd. A notice spotted by IGN states that the patent will go into effect on February 23rd. WB Games can maintain the patent through 2035, should it choose to pay the required fees.

Despite being a thing since 2015, the patent application only started making rounds last week when a lead developer at Obsidian Entertainment took to Twitter to criticize WB Games. Calling the move a “load of shit,” Josh Sawyer argued against legally restricting gameplay mechanics. “If you take someone’s design and make a better version of it, you should be given a trophy and a triumph through the streets and the people who made the previous version should applaud you and say, ‘wow that was really cool,'” he added.

It’s unclear what prompted WB’s decision and what its implications may be. It’s possible that the publisher will be willing to license the system to studios that wish to use it. However, that sounds like it’ll be a complicated process in practice and may be an unnecessary development cost.

For now, all we know is that using the Nemesis System without WB’s approval will probably result in an expensive legal battle, so we’re unlikely to see it being used in any non-WB games.

[Source: IGN]

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Folks on the internet have just found out that the Nemesis system used in Middle-earth: Shadow of War and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor was patented by publisher WB Games back in 2016.

An article published by PlayStation Universe was picked up by ResetEra, leading to an intense debate about the patent. While some folks claimed that they’ve known about the patent, many evidently missed this one, including a lead developer at Obsidian Entertainment, who took issue with it. Josh Sawyer, whose tweets seem to have prompted PSU’s article, wrote:

Somehow I missed that WB patented the Nemesis system. Lmao what a load of shit. If you take someone’s design and make a better version of it, you should be given a trophy and a triumph through the streets and the people who made the previous version should applaud you and say, ‘wow that was really cool.’ Like I didn’t want to before but this actually makes me want to make a Nemesis variant because this is so stupid. If I ever try to legally protect a gameplay mechanic I hope I am executed via the Persian boats!

The patent was authored by Monolith Productions’ developers. The studio is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

The Nemesis system is described as a special method by which “Players may share power centers, character hierarchies, non-player characters, and related quests involving the shared objects with other players playing separate and unrelated game instances over a computer network, with the outcome of the quests reflected in different the games.”

[Source: PSU via ResetEra]

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