Team was reportedly upset that MultiVersus got to launch twice while they didn’t launch once
John Tobias, one of the co-creators of Mortal Kombat, was working on a kart racing game at Warner Bros.’ San Diego studio before the plug got pulled on the game, according to a report by the Sacred Symbols podcast.
Someone once associated with the team at Warner Bros. San Diego reached out to Colin Moriarty of the Sacred Symbols podcast to show him what they were working on.
WB San Diego was deep in development on a kart racer code named Project Moonlight, WB Racers and a few other names.
Much like MultiVersus, Project Moonlight would come from Warner Bros.’ wide range of IP including Adventure Time, Tom and Jerry, Scooby-Doo and more.
It’s not hard to imagine it could have also featured the Mortal Kombat characters too, especially with John Tobias being the creative director of the studio behind the game, and since Scorpion and Sub-Zero recently joined Rocket League as cars.
The game is said to be heavily inspired by Mario Kart, a drift racing game, running on Unreal Engine 5. It underwent many business model changes, for example it started off as a free to play online only multiplayer racer, for PlayStation, Xbox, Switch and mobile.
However, towards the end of its development, the Switch and mobile platforms were dropped entirely, and a PC iteration was green lit.
After that, the remaining console versions were dropped, so that resources could be put into a PC-only release, with the hope that if that platform was successful, they could circle back and make other versions.
One thing the source relayed is there was quite a bit of animosity towards Player First Games, which got to launch MultiVersus twice while they never got a single shot to launch this kart racer.
These sentiments heavily echo the turmoil that’s been happening at Warner Bros. in recent times, from MultiVersus being scheduled to shut down on May 30, 2025 and numerous other issues that have surfaced at the company.
These things highlight how important Mortal Kombat has become to Warner Bros., where Ed Boon recently said he feels that the game has become a forever franchise, up there with the likes of Star Wars and Marvel.
We know that NetherRealm Studios has been working on their next game for quite some time, and it’s possible it could be announced this year based on history.
Ed Boon also recently said it’s only a matter of time before we see re-released versions of older Mortal Kombat games, which could include some of the older action-adventure games like Mortal Kombat: Shaolin Monks.
Having a better idea of how things are looking at Warner Bros., in terms of their gaming division, gives us a better idea of how the Mortal Kombat franchise is perceived by the major corporation — and what we can expect from them in the future.
You can check out the segment below where the information about the kart racing game, Project Moonlight, comes from.
Source: Event Hubs
