Rocksteady, the developer behind the acclaimed Batman: Arkham trilogy, has reportedly been hit with layoffs following the poor sales of this year’s Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. According to sources, the QA department was hit the hardest with more than half of its team being let go. One employee was even told they were fired in the middle of paternity leave.
Eurogamer’s sources have reported that Rocksteady issued a round of layoffs this week as a direct result of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League‘s low sales and divisive critical reception. The layoffs were described as a “restructuring” of the company, leading to several job cuts including the QA department which was halved from 33 to 15 workers. An anonymous employee was apparently told they were made redundant while in the middle of paternity leave.
A number of the layoffs are said to be junior staff, though some employees were with Rocksteady for more than five years as well.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League launched earlier this year to very mixed reviews and a negative reception from players. Many felt that while the story had some potential and the visuals were outstanding, it all took a backseat to its half-baked implementation of microtransactions and live service elements (read our review for our own thoughts on the game). Earlier this year, publisher WB Games blamed Suicide Squad for its underwhelming Q1 results as it failed to meet sales expectations.
Despite Suicide Squad’s underwhelming reception, WB Games stated after the game’s launch that it still plans on pursuing live service and mobile games. It’s particularly tough for publishers to break into the live service market right now with new projects (look no further than Sony’s Concord) unless it’s already an established IP or from a company like Valve which has a history of releasing live service projects that quickly catch on.
Source: Eurogamer
