Last month, the MultiVersus rumour mill span itself into a frenzy over some stickers plastered in Belgian McDonalds, which appeared early—like some kind of hallucination you experience when you’re severely dehydrated, only the water in this case is a platform fighter most people had a good time with that randomly shut down for months.
As I mentioned back then, the fan community has been… coping. Back in December, I pointed out that there was a Josh Hutcherson fancam to ‘blow my whistle’ headlining the game’s subreddit with over 500 upvotes. Normal!
Well, turns out that the promotion is, in fact, real (thanks, TheGamer). If you go over to the McDonalds Belgium website, there’s an honest-to-god promotion conspicuously missing a “find out more” button. Clicking the “more information” button on the front page just leads to that link, so this is all we really have to go on:
“MultiVersus is a mighty fantasy game in which Warner Bros heroes join forces and then battle each other in pairs. Collect* all 24 iconic characters, create the most powerful duo, and get ready for the MultiVersus battle of the century.” As Multiversusie on Twitter points out, MultiVersus only had 23 characters. Though it could also be an error—or, Tom & Jerry (who count as one fighter in the game) are considered two characters for the promotion.
Bizarrely, there’s not a whisper of this (at the time of writing) on the game’s account, nor the dev Player1stGames‘ feed. The McDonald Belgium’s official account only has a solitary post from May of last year, which is just a weekend promotion that apparently ran after a Belgian MP accidentally referred to consulting firm McKinsey & Company as “Emsie Kensie”. I feel like I’m trapped in the world’s crappiest ARG.
Fortunately, the game’s ravenous fans have been on the case. AusilMV on Twitter has been collecting tins and photos from a variety of sources:
There have also been some new ‘renders’ of known characters on the roster, shared and cleaned up by MVSDonkDonk, though there’s some questions as to whether these are just promotional images rather than character redesigns. Lastly, here’s an official T.V commercial which confirms we’re not all just collectively McFreakin’ losing it. That, or it’s the first instance of someone hiring child actors and a film crew for a fake game leak.
Mcdonald’s commercial from r/MultiVersusTheGame
This whole thing (much like the game suddenly vanishing) is complete looney tunes. No tie-in with a release date, no peep from official channels: just a fully-sanctioned McDonalds ad campaign only available in specific countries. Still, it’s confirmation that people weren’t just imagining things back in December: and that MultiVersus hasn’t been forgotten about. Probably.
www.pcgamer.com