Rocksteady hit by layoffs after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League underperforms

[Fenton]

Rocksteady staff have told Eurogamer of redundancies at the studio, following the underperformance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

The company's QA department has seen its size almost cut in half over the past month, Eurogamer understands, from 33 team members to 15, with poor sales of Suicide Squad directly cited as a reason for its "restructuring".

The job losses extend outside of QA, too. One staff member posting publicly on social media over the weekend revealed they had been told they were being made redundant in the middle of their paternity leave.

Rocksteady hit by layoffs after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League underperforms

Rocksteady staff have told Eurogamer of redundancies at the studio, following the underperformance of Suicide Squad: Ki…

www.eurogamer.net

 

[ToTTenTranz]

I find it hard to believe Rocksteady's developers were surprised by this.

Studio went 9 years without releasing a single title, and then they put out a game that underperforms so hard that their parent company declares a $200 million loss because of it.

They had to know this was coming, and my guess is most of the people who didn't leave early were waiting to be fired for the severance packages.



To think this was the same studio who released Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight in the span of 6 years...

 

[Bryank75]

Underperformance is a huge understatement

 

[voke]

hopefully they live and make all of this right.

 

[Shmunter]

Our next game is even bigger, and gaasier than the last!

Speaking of which, thinking of giving Arkham Origins a shot, yeah it’s not rocksteady, but it has their dna from a bygone era. Game looks very attractive maxed on pc 4k/60

 

[ToTTenTranz]

hopefully they live and make all of this right.

Why though?

The current team is making a product that doesn't sell. It doesn't matter if there are spectacularly competent and talented people in that team if the current arrangement is unable to be successful. They're better off disbanding and trying their luck in another project with other people.

If WB is smart, they'll reroute the talent to other teams that are building successful products, but keeping Rocksteady as it is right now would be insanity. This wasn't a short one-off failure in-between successes.

 

[arvfab]

Our next game is even bigger, and gaasier than the last!

Speaking of which, thinking of giving Arkham Origins a shot, yeah it’s not rocksteady, but it has their dna from a bygone era. Game looks very attractive maxed on pc 4k/60

Still a bit mad they didn't include it in the Arkham collection. They could've taken out the MP from it and put the SP in the collection.

 

[FatKaz]

I know alot of the main people who made the arkham games have left, but they had a blueprint for success and they decided to throw it all away.

 

[arvfab]

I know alot of the main people who made the arkham games have left, but they had a blueprint for success and they decided to throw it all away.

But GAAS is the future, haven't you heard? If you aren't doing GAAS, you have no reason to exist.

 

[John Elden Ring]

How can they fire the QA Team when they never had Quality Assurance?

 

[quest4441]

Womp womp, Are we supposed to feel bad?

 

[arvfab]

How can they fire the QA Team when they never had Quality Assurance?

You are thinking of Bethesda. Rocksteady had one, but they let Suicide Squad happen, that's why they are being laid off now.

 

[CrackmanNL]

Every time I read upon Rocksteady I am so glad Naughty Dog didn't turn into a live-service studio in hindsight.
It's a shame they were done with Batman cause we definitely needed that last Batman Beyond game..

Saw Suicide Squad btw for 15 euros in a store, telling enough.

 

[arvfab]

Saw Suicide Squad btw for 15 euros in a store, telling enough.

I expect it to join PS+ around Christmas time (either December or January).

 

[Gods&Monsters]

It's sad but how are they going to continue to pay these people if the game is a huge flop? Everyday they are losing money.

Same as Firewalk, everyday they keep the studio open they are operating at a loss. You can't pivot 150 people at once and no money is coming in.

At least RockSteady had big hits and a nice reputation before SS.

 

[ToTTenTranz]

How can they fire the QA Team when they never had Quality Assurance?

They can't fire the team that was doing QA because there was no team doing QA... but they can fire the team that was being paid to do QA.

 

[toadsage44]

Speaking of which, thinking of giving Arkham Origins a shot, yeah it’s not rocksteady, but it has their dna from a bygone era. Game looks very attractive maxed on pc 4k/60

I played it a couple years ago as a test of my PS3 after I replaced the thermal paste and CMOS battery in it. It's a fun game and I enjoyed it more than I expected to. I'd say give it a shot, especially at 4K/60!

 

[Say1nMan]

Tough but not surprised. The more infuriating thing out of all of this is Warner Bros. passing up on new and different Batman games because they thought a Suicide Squad game would make waves. A freaking Batman Beyond game done right would have been awesome and Rocksteady had the resume prior to Suicide Squad to do it.

 

[Yurinka]

Not surprising