A report into the making of $200 million flop Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has shed new mild on Rocksteady’s troubled launch in addition to what’s subsequent for the studio.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was panned by critics upon launch and had extraordinarily low participant numbers on Steam. A few of the frustration stemmed from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League not being one other Batman recreation from Rocksteady, regardless of it being set inside the identical Arkhamverse.
The developer’s single participant Batman Arkham collection is much-loved by followers, with 2011’s Batman: Arkham Metropolis in explicit held up as certainly one of the best, if not the best, superhero video video games of all time. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, on the different hand, is a stay service third-person fight recreation in which Batman is a villain. Writer Warner Bros. quickly admitted the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League contributed to a $200 million hit to income.
Bloomberg spoke to a lot of sources who revealed how Rocksteady went from engaged on an unique multiplayer recreation codenamed Stones to a stay service Suicide Squad recreation amid what was described internally as a tradition of “poisonous positivity” that “discouraged criticism.” The unique plan was to launch Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice league in 2019 or 2020, however a lot of growth points over the years in addition to Rocksteady’s lack of stay service and multiplayer experience, mixed to trigger the recreation to undergo important delays.
Bloomberg mentioned that regardless of Suicide Squad’s clear failings as Warner Bros. and Rocksteady chased the unstable stay service pattern, administration would insist every part would come collectively finally. In accordance with Bloomberg, Warner Bros. executives had instructed Rocksteady employees they anticipated Suicide Squad to develop into a billion-dollar franchise. Clearly, it didn’t.
What occurs subsequent? In accordance with Bloomberg, Rocksteady employees have been instructed in February 2024 the firm was understaffed in comparison with different online game publishers, suggesting job cuts will not be on the means. Many employees at Rocksteady are actually mentioned to be engaged on a director’s lower model of Warner Bros. blockbuster online game Hogwarts Legacy, whereas studio management pitches a brand new single-player recreation “which might return Rocksteady to its roots.”
Warner Bros. didn’t touch upon the report.
In the meantime, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League seems set to obtain new content material (the recreation lately teased the introduction of Mrs. Freeze as a playable character) in the short-term, however there are query marks over Warner Bros.’ dedication long-term. The corporate has, nevertheless, revealed Batman: Arkham Shadow, a VR recreation developed by Camouflaj, maker of the Iron Man VR recreation, and set for launch solely on the Meta Quest 3 later in 2024.
Wesley is the UK Information Editor for IGN. Discover him on Twitter at @wyp100. You possibly can attain Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.