Rocksteady Studios Reportedly Hit With Layoffs After Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Sells Poorly

The poor commercial performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was cited as the reason behind the “restructuring” effort.

Written by Manas Mitul | Updated: 3 September 2024 13:02 IST

Rocksteady Studios Reportedly Hit With Layoffs After Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Sells Poorly

Photo Credit: Warner Bros. Games

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was released on February 2

Highlights

Warner Bros. Games has not officially announced the reported layoffs
Rocksteady's QA team has reportedly reduced from 33 team members to 15
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League led to a $200 million loss for WB

Rocksteady Studios, the British developer behind the Batman Arkham games, has reportedly been hit with layoffs. The redundancies are said to have mostly affected the studio's quality assurance (QA) department. The reported layoffs at Rocksteady come after the Warner Bros. Games-owned studio's latest title, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, sold poorly after it launched in February.

Layoffs at Rocksteady

According to a Eurogamer report, layoffs have left Rocksteady's QA department reduced to almost half its size over the past month. The studio's employees told the publication that the QA department, which included 33 team members, was now down to 15. The poor commercial performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was cited as the reason behind the “restructuring” effort.

Layoffs reportedly impacted staff members outside of the QA department, as well. According to the report, one employee was informed of their termination during their paternity leave. Rocksteady or its parent Warner Bros., have not yet confirmed the job cuts.

Warner Bros. Doubles Down on Live Service Despite Suicide Squad's Failure

Rocksteady senior management reportedly acknowledged that the redundancies would impact product quality at the studio going forward, according to staffers.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Led to Warner Bros. Losses

Warner Bros. Games launched Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League earlier this year, betting heavily on the live service model. The game was a critical and commercial failure, peaking out at 13,459 concurrent players on Steam. In its first-quarter 2024 earnings call in May, Warner Bros. revealed that it would take a $200 million (roughly Rs. 1,679 crore) hit on Suicide Squad. “Games revenue declined significantly due to the success of Hogwarts Legacy in the prior year quarter, while this year's Q1 release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League generated significantly lower revenues,” the company said in its Q1 earnings report.

Last month, during its Q2 2024 earnings call, Warner Bros. reported that its games revenue declined 41 percent YoY, “primarily driven by the weak performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League this year, compared to the strong performance of Hogwarts Legacy in the prior year.”

Warner Bros. Wants Other Studios to Make Games Based on Its Franchises

Despite Suicide Squad's failure, Warner Bros. has committed to the games as a service model and intends to transform its biggest franchises into live service games. “We think there's an opportunity to take those four franchises and develop a much more holistic approach, particularly around expanding into the mobile and multi-platform free to play space, which can give us a much better and more consistent set of revenue,” J.B. Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said at a conference in March.

Gadgets 360's 6/10 review of the game said that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was severely held back by its live service model, with “baffling design choices, mundane mission structure, and unclear identity” working against the game's strengths.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

REVIEW
KEY SPECS
NEWS

Good
Fun traversal
Interesting story premise
Likeable cast of characters
Chaotic combat
Kevin Conroy's Batman

Bad
Repetitive missions
Grindy gameplay
Live service fatigue
Unimaginative boss fights
Unsatisfying story

Read detailed Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League review

Genre Action-Adventure

Platform PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series S/X, PC: Windows

Modes Single-player, Multiplayer

Series Batman: Arkham

PEGI Rating 18+

More Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment Games

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Further reading: Rocksteady Studios, Rocksteady, Warner Bros, Warner Bros Games, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League

Manas Mitul

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In his time as a journalist, Manas Mitul has written on a wide spectrum of beats including politics, culture and sports. He enjoys reading, walking around in museums and rewatching films. Talk to Manas about football and tennis, but maybe don’t bring up his video game backlog. More