Schreier on the reasons for the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League — "toxic positivity" and the lack of experience in creating live-service games
The release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a failure. In their latest financial report, the game's publisher, Warner Bros. Discovery, announced that the game resulted in a $200 million loss. Journalist Jason Schreier spoke with individuals close to Rocksteady Studios to uncover what went wrong.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
According to Schreier's sources, Suicide Squad failed due to:
- constant changes in the vision;
- an unfamiliar genre for Rocksteady Studios;
- numerous delays;
- a "culture of rigid perfectionism."
Initially, the game about the "Suicide Squad" was being developed by Warner Bros. Games Montreal. After the success of the 2016 film of the same name, the company decided to offer the project to Rocksteady Studios. They prepared a presentation detailing the advantages of service-based projects and sent top executives to London to persuade Rocksteady Studios' leadership.
The studio heads, Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill, were not opposed and soon informed employees that they would be making a service game, although Rocksteady Studios had never developed such games before.
Rocksteady Studios was initially planning to work on a multiplayer puzzle game under the code name Stones. However, Walker and Hill considered Suicide Squad to be a more promising project.
Rocksteady Studios began working on Suicide Squad in late 2016, aiming to release the game in 2019 or 2020.
The studio started to expand significantly. Over the next seven years, its staff grew from 160 to over 250 people.
Notably, when hiring initially, new employees were not informed about what they would be working on. They only found out over time, to their surprise, that it was a service game. Considering that Rocksteady Studios had previously only worked on single-player games, this disappointed many newcomers, leading to resignations.
Lacking experience with service games, developers did not fully understand how to structure many activities in the game. Rocksteady Studios was accustomed to telling stories that players experience just once, whereas in service games, players encounter the same elements repeatedly. This caused difficulties in making boss fights and other activities more diverse.
The vision of the game changed frequently. At the start of development, it was intended for Suicide Squad to feature many melee battles, but the focus later shifted to firearms. Many developers were puzzled as to why characters should use guns when other weapons might be more appropriate. For example, Captain Boomerang should logically use boomerangs instead of other weapons.
The game was technically very challenging, leading to frequent release delays. Developers worked towards one deadline after another, preferring to implement short-term changes rather than fully fixing the game.
Hill, who oversaw the game's development, significantly slowed the process due to his perfectionism. Developers sometimes waited weeks or even months for his feedback.
Hill occasionally discarded large portions of the script, proposing unsuccessful ideas that were eventually abandoned. One such idea was to allow players to equip vehicles or other forms of transport with weapons and drive around the city. After several months of experiments, this idea was ultimately rejected.
Hill also admitted he had little experience with other service games like Destiny and was not very familiar with the format.
All these issues affected morale within the studio. Developers were concerned about their lack of real progress and the need to abandon too many elements.
Although developers feared the failure of Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. Discovery's leadership was optimistic. Top managers believed everything would fall into place at the last moment and ignored the failures of other service games like Anthem, Marvel’s Avengers, and Redfall.
Warner Bros. Discovery praised the graphics of Suicide Squad and predicted that the game would kickstart a billion-dollar franchise. Some developers described the studio's atmosphere as "toxic positivity," claiming that the culture at Warner Bros. Discovery did not tolerate criticism.
In the fall of 2022, Rocksteady Studios founders Walker and Hill left the studio. Their departure shocked staff. Later, Walker and Hill founded a new studio called Hundred Star Games, stating they wanted to create games free from the pressures of large corporations like Warner Bros. Discovery.
In February 2024, Suicide Squad was released. The game was poorly received by both audiences and critics, with an average score on Metacritic of 60-63 out of 100, depending on the platform.
Despite the game's failure, Warner Bros. Discovery does not plan to lay off employees at Rocksteady Studios. According to the company's leadership, there is no point in making cuts since its studios already have a limited number of staff.
Rocksteady Studios is currently helping with the creation of the director's cut of Hogwarts Legacy. Afterwards, it plans to develop a new single-player game that will return the studio to its roots.
