According to rumors, Warner Bros. Discovery’s (WBD) game has flopped so badly that the studio that developed it is now facing consequences…

Eurogamer has reported that Rocksteady is suffering for the underperformance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (the game itself was so-so…), and that several people at the London-based studio have been laid off. Most of them worked in the quality assurance department: there were thirty-three, and now there are only fifteen. At least one developer who didn’t work in QA was let go: he confirmed on social media that he was on paternity leave and was fired!

According to sources within Rocksteady, Eurogamer wrote that these layoffs will clearly harm the quality of game development, leaving the remaining developers with even more work, which does not reflect well on the quality of their work. The reasoning behind the layoffs is clear: Suicide Squad didn’t do so well, even though Rocksteady’s previous game, Batman: Arkham Knight, came out almost nine years before it (or eight years if you count Batman: Arkham VR…), and yet Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a huge disappointment.

This was reflected in WBD’s financial results, although this was somewhat skewed by the release of Hogwarts Legacy in February 2023, so the fact that the following fiscal year saw a 41% drop in game revenue should come as no surprise, given that the Potter game was the bestseller of 2023. Rocksteady is trying to improve the game’s situation with post-launch content (it is, after all, a live service model).

According to a rumor, Rocksteady is currently helping with the development of Hogwarts Legacy: Director’s Cut, and it doesn’t look like the studio is headed for closure at the moment, but if the team produces another big flop, WBD will certainly be thinking about it…

Source: WCCFTech, Eurogamer