A whisper of hope: a cryptic Belgian McDonald's promotion has spawned a flurry of desperate MultiVersus hype from abandoned players

Free Multiversus characters for the next two weeks
(Image credit: Warner Bros Interactive)

Ah, MultiVersus. By all accounts, it was a genuinely solid platform fighter with an all-star cast, torn away from us too soon. It was only an "open beta!" What do you mean there were seasons with battle passes? That's normal for an open beta. To test battle passes you could buy with real money.

This sudden Wile E. Coyote bait-and-switch hit diehard fans like a painted cliff, especially since platform fighters on the PC have never really had their 'Smash Bros.' moment. There's plenty of decent ones, sure. Brawlhalla, Rivals of Aether, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl 2—but nothing ever quite captured a community in the same way as Nintendo's juggernaut.

But MulitVersus felt like a real contender. The Warner Bros. portfolio is massive, and for a beautiful second, it seemed like we'd live in a world where Saul Goodman could spike the Iron Giant. Well, there might be hope on the horizon—though there's a thin line between hope and cope. As spotted by The Gamer, a Belgian McDonald's promotional sticker made the rounds on Twitter last week. 

A screenshot of a tweet from @mercWmouthMVS, reading "I think we MIGHT get a Multiversus release date/news soon, i went to mcdonalds and saw THIS. we are SO back". Attached is a photograph of an in-store advertisement from a Belgian McDonald's, showing the renderings of Superman and Harley Quinn from Multiversus with the caption "Soon in your happy meal" written in Dutch.

(Image credit: @mercWmouthMVS on Twitter/X)

Which isn't confirmation of anything, necessarily. Especially in the age of AI, it'd be pretty easy for your average leaker to fake something like this with techno-wizardry. Except this Deadpool fan went back, snapping a second pic and a recording. The McFlurry thickens. 

Okay, so—maybe they actually printed out a photoshopped sticker with some old artwork, slapped it on a window, and bothered a few poor Belgian McDonalds employees by circling their entrance like a buzzard with their phone out. People have gone to further lengths to fake leaks before. Except these stickers have cropped up again: 

A second Twitter screenshot, with a photograph taken by user @Wishmaster3891 of the Belgian Multiversus McDonald's ad from a different location.

(Image credit: @Wishmaster3891 on Twitter/X)

Yet another Twitter screenshot of a third McDonald's Multiversus ad sticker at a third location in Belgium, photographed once again by user @Wishmaster3891.

(Image credit: @Wishmaster3891)

These stickers read (courtesy of Google translate): "Soon in your Happy Meal," so it can be safely assumed that the promotion, if legitimate, includes some MultiVersus themed toys. It's a little blurry, but it also looks like the copyright text at the bottom says "2024", and last we heard the game was slated for a 2024 comeback.

Coincidentally, MultiVersus voice actors Daniel Ross (Uncle Shagworthy, Gizmo, Stripe) and Abby Trott (Wonder Woman) posted a video to Twitter. Just to say hi.

"We see you, and we love you, and we love MultiVersus and stuff," says Ross, before both of them wave goodbye. Looking at the game's subreddit itself, this wholesome video seems almost cruel—seeing as the whole place has collectively lost its goddamn mind. Like a Tamagochi you forgot about, except the Tamagochi can't die.

As an example, here's a fake roadmap trailer post with over 500 upvotes that's just a Josh Hutcherson fancam set to "Blow My Whistle." Why? Those secrets are eldritch knowledge, known only to the faithful. Do not ask to stare into the void, it will stare back. And Josh Hutcherson will be there.

Multiversus - 2024 roadmap trailer from r/MultiVersusTheGame

This is all decidedly eldritch, and I fear if I dig any deeper I'll be dragged into the MultiVersus purgatory with the rest of these lost souls. Ultimately, I'm still a little baffled you can't play the game right now to begin with. Some of the live service elements were a touch obnoxious, but it was otherwise a good time—we even gave it a 78 in our MultiVersus review

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

Read more
The Joker in MultiVersus
MultiVersus is somehow using its dying breath to go full looney tunes and put out what may be one of its best patches, and now fans want it to be saved
Multiversus
Warner Bros. says that's all, folks for Multiversus: The next season will be its last, but you'll be able to play offline 'for the foreseeable future'
The Joker as he appears in a trailer for fighting game Multiversus
The true victims of Multiversus closing are the people who bought that $100 Founder's Pack
Tasmanian Devil
Multiversus director addresses fans angered by its upcoming closure: 'You're entitled to what you say and think, but when there are threats to harm it's crossing the line'
Doctor Strange in Marvel Rivals
Asked point-blank if they're trolling dataminers with fake characters, Marvel Rivals dev scoffs and says they'd 'rather spend our time developing the game'
Hollow Knight: Silksong — Hornet, the heroine of the Hollow Knight sequel, leaping into action.
The cake was a lie, but Silksong 'is real, progressing and will release' say devs, after flurry of conspiracy theories revealed to be a 'nothingburger'
Latest in Fighting
Dancouga blasting the heck out of Mazinger Z in crossover mecha fighter Iron Saga VS
This fighter is Marvel Vs Capcom for classic mecha anime sickos, launching into early access with a strategy RPG story mode on its heels
The four Ninja Turtles, back to back, slam their shells into Brainiac
Great moments in PC gaming: Injustice 2's over-the-top super moves
2XKO promo image - Ahri
2XKO fans despair for a 2025 release as Riot pushes back a planned 'larger-scale global playtest' in favor of a 'much smaller one'
The Joker in MultiVersus
MultiVersus is somehow using its dying breath to go full looney tunes and put out what may be one of its best patches, and now fans want it to be saved
Virtua Fighter 5 key art
Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. isn't just a PC port of a 19-year-old game: it's the reason a diehard fighting game community can 'finally reach out and play with each other across the world'
Tasmanian Devil
Multiversus director addresses fans angered by its upcoming closure: 'You're entitled to what you say and think, but when there are threats to harm it's crossing the line'
Latest in News
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion