Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Studio Reports More Layoffs

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Summary

  • Rocksteady has been hit with fresh layoffs after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League‘s underperformance.
  • The game’s poor sales reportedly led to the studio’s QA staff being cut by half back in September.
  • The new layoffs extended to Rocksteady’s programming and artist teams ahead of Suicide Squad’s final update.

The studio responsible for creating the Batman: Arkham series, including Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, has recently faced another wave of job cuts. Last year, Rocksteady’s latest release, the spin-off title Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, received mixed reviews upon launch and became increasingly controversial as additional post-launch content was introduced. In the end, Rocksteady decided to halt the creation of new content for Suicide Squad following a final update in January that concluded the game’s narrative arc.

The title “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” proved to be a financially challenging project for Rocksteady and WB Games. In February, Warner Bros. reported that the game didn’t meet its sales targets. Consequently, several months later, Rocksteady had to implement significant layoffs in its Quality Assurance (QA) department. These reductions were partly due to the underperformance of “Suicide Squad”. Approximately half the QA team was let go, reducing it from 33 employees to just 15.

Unfortunately, the job losses at Rocksteady Studios continued towards the end of 2024, according to a report by Eurogamer. This second wave affected various departments including Quality Assurance, programming, and art teams. Several employees who were let go shared their experiences with Eurogamer, preferring to stay anonymous to safeguard their future prospects. Warner Bros., the studio’s parent company, has not yet made any official comments regarding these layoffs, similarly silent as they were about the cuts in September.

Rocksteady Lays Off More Suicide Squad Employees

It appears that not just Rocksteady Studios, but also WB Games Montreal, known for creating games like Batman: Arkham Origins and Gotham Knights, has experienced layoffs recently. Many of these job cuts were reportedly from the quality assurance team who supported Rocksteady in the development of Suicide Squad’s post-launch DLC following its release.

The final expansion for this DLC was released on December 10, introducing Deathstroke, a previous boss from Batman: Arkham Origins, as the fourth and last new playable character for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Towards the end of this month, Rocksteady plans to roll out one final update for Suicide Squad, but it remains uncertain what the studio has planned after that. Regrettably, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League seems to be leaving a dark stain on Rocksteady’s otherwise impressive portfolio of cherished DC-themed video games, as indicated by the significant layoffs following the disappointing live service game.

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2025-01-07 21:43