MultiVersus has now been available for around two weeks, including its Open Beta early access. A meta is already forming within the fighting game, as certain characters tower above others in either 1v1 or 2v2. Community tier lists sort the MultiVersus roster into levels of strength, acknowledging that some fighters need buffs while others need nerfs. And developer Player First Games is watching, preparing for the next update. It's apparently hunting season because Player First has set its sights on Bugs Bunny.
Player First Games has been surprisingly transparent throughout the development of MultiVersus, in particular due to the posting habits of MultiVersus game director Tony Huynh. Huynh spends a good amount of downtime each day responding to MultiVersus player questions and sharing news where he can. Unprompted, Huynh recently confirmed that Bug Bunny would be the target of some upcoming nerfs. They won't necessarily be arriving immediately, however.
The confirmation about upcoming Bugs nerfs came in response to a MultiVersus player sharing a photo hinting that they were considering unlocking Bugs. Huynh responded that Bugs Bunny will always be fun, but also warned that Bugs would soon be nerfed. No specific nerfs were mentioned. Huynh did say that the nerfs wouldn't arrive until "after EVO," though, referring to the upcoming EVO Championship fighting game tournament event. EVO 2022 will be held between August 5 and August 7.
While Huynh doesn't explicitly state why the nerfs will be delayed for another week, it's clarified in another Twitter post regarding a different topic. While Player First does drop hotfixes for MultiVersus bugs and issues as necessary, most changes are reserved for "big updates." It just so happens MultiVersus Season 1 and the release of Morty from Rick and Morty are coming out on August 9, making it the next "big update."
It should also be made clear that while the MultiVersus team is nerfing Bugs, this isn't Huynh specifically calling out Bugs or saying anything about the state of other characters in the game. Nerfs like what was done to Taz are certain to be coming soon for other characters, too. In other words, Finn mains are safe for now but after EVO all bets are off.
Player First deserves a lot of credit for its efforts so far. It's a relatively small studio with only 43 employees acknowledged on LinkedIn, with 17 positions looking to be filled. The studio is working hard to ensure MultiVersus has as successful of an Open Beta as it can have with limited development resources. Even small messages about upcoming nerfs create additional trust between the studio and its players. Hopefully, with MultiVersus' success, that only improves over time.
MultiVersus is available now in Open Beta on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.