Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League did not, by most metrics, do what it was imagined to. On paper, it was meant to spin up Rocksteady’s pedigree of Batman video games right into a multiversal reside service, aiming for a chunk of the pie that video games like Fortnite have been scarfing down for years.
In follow, it fell in need of expectations, misplaced Warner Bros Entertainment $200 million, and struggles even now to collect greater than 200 concurrents on Steam. As I write, solely 56 individuals are taking part in it on Valve’s platform (although probably there are extra elsewhere).
Things have gone from dangerous to worse. As reported by Eurogamer, Rocksteady has begun to put off over half of its QA division with, because the report states, “poor gross sales of Suicide Squad instantly cited as a cause”. This would carry the division down from 33 members to fifteen.
Staff proceeded to tell the positioning that there’d be extra layoffs coming, with one member stating they have been laid off throughout their paternity depart—thankfully, Rocksteady is predicated within the UK, which implies stated worker must be receiving the remainder of their depart no matter their unemployment standing.
Anonymous workers members additionally expressed issues that these cuts to the QA division would “depart their remaining colleagues shouldered with extra work”, and that senior administration is already anticipating the standard of future Rocksteady video games to “endure consequently.”
This is all fairly irritating to listen to, even when it is not surprising. I’m not going to take a seat right here and inform you that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was some unfairly maligned darling that deserved higher. It was a reasonably dangerous concept from the outset, particularly with a Bloomberg report from earlier this 12 months portray a damning image of a growth journey that appeared indecisive concerning the sport’s mechanics and hampered by unfocused, tardy management.
There’s nothing I can actually add right here that hasn’t been repeated time and time once more, like with the grim closure of Arkane Austin after Redfall. Everyone desires to make a reside service, as a result of reside service video games make financial institution after they hit—however these pulls on the metaphorical slot machine are downright wasteful. Of business expertise, of their work, and of the video games that would have been.
