With Rocksteady’s lack of involvement in games using the live service model, it’s no wonder that the studio, which had a huge success with its Batman: Arkham titles, failed with Suicide Squad.

We’ve already reported what Warner CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels said (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League failed to meet its sales targets), and $200 million was lost on the project according to David Zaslav, head of Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). In response, Bloomberg published an article about the game and the studio developing it: the publication interviewed more than 20 people, but WBD and two Rocksteady co-founders, Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill, declined to comment.

According to Bloomberg, Rocksteady was NOT the original development team for Suicide Squad. It was first developed by Warner Bros. Montréal, but Warner canceled the project and handed it over to Rocksteady, which was working on a game codenamed Stones. It was a multiplayer puzzle-solving project that was canceled at the end of 2016, with the goal of releasing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League no later than 2020.

Warner approached Rocksteady’s management about doing something similar after the success of other live service games (e.g. Destiny, League of Legends), which they agreed to, but the staff found the idea uncomfortable as they had no experience in it. Compared to the studio’s previous games, the world of Suicide Squad was much more complex, as was the need to support four players at once. So they hired more people, and in seven years, Rocksteady’s staff grew from 160 to 250, which the managers couldn’t handle.

The concept of the game changed constantly. After months of experimenting with a vehicular system, combat shifted from melee to shooting, even though some characters (such as Captain Boomerang) are better known for their melee skills. Management continued to promise that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League would come together towards the end of development, like the Batman: Arkham titles, but that never happened. The atmosphere at the studio had a “toxic positivity” where they looked down on any criticism. Warner also created tension by trying to make a billion dollar franchise out of Squicide Squad, even though similar titles (Marvel’s Avengers, Redfall, Anthem) all failed.

Walker and Hill left the studio in late 2022 and have since formed another company called Hundred Star Games. While Hill was the game’s director, his quest for perfection slowed the process, adding weeks or months to development. Despite this, Rocksteady will reportedly not be a victim of layoffs, as Warner says the studio is already understaffed compared to other publishers. Rocksteady is reportedly involved in the development of Hogwarts Legacy: Director’s Cut and is preparing a new single-player title with several concepts.

It doesn’t seem silly what Bloomberg claims.

Source: Gamesindustry, Bloomberg