Rocksteady Studios, the British developer of the Batman Arkham game, has reportedly suffered layoffs. The layoffs are said to primarily affect the studio’s quality assurance (QA) department. The reported layoffs at Rocksteady come after the Warner Bros. Games-owned studio’s latest game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, suffered from poor sales following its launch in February.
Rocksteady layoffs
According to a report from Eurogamer, Rocksteady’s QA department has been reduced by nearly half in size over the past month due to layoffs. Employees at the studio told the publication that the QA department, which consisted of 33 team members, has now been reduced to 15. The poor commercial performance of “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” was cited as the reason behind the “reorganization” effort.
The layoffs also reportedly affected employees outside of the quality assurance department. One employee was reportedly informed of her dismissal while on paternity leave. The layoffs have not yet been confirmed by Rocksteady or its parent company, Warner Bros.
According to staff members, Rocksteady’s senior management acknowledged that the layoffs will affect the quality of the studio’s future products.
‘Suicide Squad: Killing the Justice League’ leads to Warner Bros. loss
Warner Bros. Games is betting heavily on the live service model with the launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League earlier this year. The game was a critical commercial failure, peaking at 13,459 concurrent players on Steam. During its Q1 2024 earnings call in May, Warner Bros. revealed that Suicide Squad would be investing $200 million (approximately Rs. 1,679 crore). The company said in its first-quarter earnings report that “game revenue declined significantly due to the success of last quarter’s Hogwarts Legacy and the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in the first quarter of this year.”
Last month, during its second-quarter 2024 earnings call, Warner Bros. reported a 41% year-over-year decline in gaming revenue “primarily due to weak performance from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League this year and strong performance from Hogwarts Legacy last year.”
Despite the failure of Suicide Squad, Warner Bros. remains committed to the games-as-a-service model and intends to turn its biggest franchise into a live service game. “We think there’s an opportunity to leverage these four series and develop a more comprehensive approach, particularly expanding into mobile and multi-platform free-to-play, that can generate better and more stable revenue for us,” JB Perrette, chief executive and president of global streaming and gaming at Warner Bros. Discovery, said at a conference in March.
technology shout’s 6/10 review of the game said Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is severely hampered by its live-service mode, with “confusing design choices, a mundane mission structure, and an unclear identity” working against the game’s strengths.
