Summary
- Rocksteady has faced additional layoffs following the underwhelming performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
- The game's disappointing sales led to significant cuts in the studio's QA department back in September.
- The latest layoffs have affected Rocksteady's programming and artist teams, coinciding with the final update for Suicide Squad.
Rocksteady, renowned for the Batman: Arkham series and the more recent Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, has encountered another wave of layoffs in 2024. The year proved challenging for the studio, particularly with the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a Batman: Arkham spin-off that received mixed reviews and became increasingly divisive with its post-launch DLC. Rocksteady ultimately decided to cease adding new content to the game after a final update in January, which concluded the storyline.
The financial impact of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was significant for both Rocksteady and its parent company, WB Games. Warner Bros. disclosed in February that the game did not meet sales expectations. This led to substantial layoffs in Rocksteady's QA department several months later, reducing the team from 33 to 15 employees.
Unfortunately, the layoffs did not end there. As reported by Eurogamer, Rocksteady faced another round of staff reductions towards the end of 2024. This time, the cuts extended beyond the QA team to include members of the programming and artist teams. Several affected employees, who chose to remain anonymous to safeguard their future careers, shared their experiences with Eurogamer. Warner Bros. has not yet commented on these recent layoffs, maintaining the same silence it observed after the September cuts.
Rocksteady Lays Off More Suicide Squad Employees
The ripple effects of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's underperformance have not been limited to Rocksteady alone. WB Games Montreal, the studio behind 2013's Batman: Arkham Origins and 2022's Gotham Knights, also announced layoffs in December. These layoffs primarily affected the quality assurance team that had been assisting Rocksteady with the development of Suicide Squad's post-launch DLC.
The last piece of this DLC, released on December 10, introduced Deathstroke, a former boss from Batman: Arkham Origins, as the fourth and final playable character in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Rocksteady is set to release one final update for the game later this month, leaving the studio's future plans uncertain. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League appears to be concluding as a blemish on Rocksteady's otherwise stellar record of acclaimed DC-based video games, underscored by the significant layoffs resulting from the game's poor performance.
