Released in February on PS5, Xbox Series S, Xbox Serie X and PC, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League experienced a chaotic development which explains its mediocrity. Bloomberg reveals behind the scenes.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is one of the most disappointing video games of the year 2024, even though it was developed by a studio with a reputation that no longer needs to be proven. Before hitting a wall, Rocksteady had everyone in agreement with its Batman: Arkham trilogy. The failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which blew a $200 million hole in Warner Bros.’ books. Discovery, was unfortunately predictable. In an article published on June 6, Bloomberg reveals the bleak behind the scenes.
Warner Bros. Discovery entrusted the project to Rocksteady in 2016. The first turmoil quickly appeared due to the very nature of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. While the studio specialized in single-player experiences, it was asked to develop a multiplayer game-service. An unprecedented orientation, which pushed many employees to abandon the ship before it sank. They were right, because the production was constantly disrupted by decisions that could change everything overnight.
The Suicide Squad game is everything you shouldn’t do when developing a game
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League therefore started from a bad idea. Behind, nothing has been done to change things. Sefton Hill, a creative director who left Rocksteady before launch, harbored obsessions that bogged down development. For example, he wanted Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League offers customizable vehicles, which didn’t make much sense given the size of the map (there are still some in the game, but for specific missions).
Due to these avenues, each more improbable than the last, the developers had difficulty maintaining a clear and defined course. We sold them an experience based first on hand-to-hand combat, then a focus on shooting phases. Rocksteady didn’t have the shoulders to take on a project that was the opposite of what it knows how to do and, as a bonus, we only put obstacles in its way. that’s why Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is ultra-repetitive and close to a waste: we asked developers to fit circles into squares, then squares into triangles.
The worst ? Warner Bros. Discovery never saw the problem during numerous presentation meetings. “ They kept sending rave feedback, complimenting the graphics and saying Suicide Squad would become a multi-billion dollar saga. », Indicates Bloomberg. There is a form of denial which is quite chilling and which has precipitated, even reinforced, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in his fall. Today, he observes starvation traffic on a platform like Steam (less than 250 people connected at the same time on average, over the last 30 days). Rocksteady has also indicated that communication will be rarer on the blog: we are moving from a weekly rhythm to a more vague calendar. In short, it is not certain that the servers will still be open in 2025. Nor that the studio will recover.
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