Rocksteady Hit with More Layoffs Due to Suicide Squad's Ongoing Impact

At the end of 2024, Rocksteady Studios, the acclaimed developer behind Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, faced another round of layoffs. Six employees, who wished to remain anonymous, confirmed these layoffs. The affected roles spanned across the programming team, artists, and testers. This latest round of layoffs continues from the cuts initiated in September, when the number of testers was drastically reduced from 33 to 15.

Throughout 2024, Rocksteady struggled to maintain momentum for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League amid waning popularity. Warner Bros. reported staggering losses of approximately $200 million from the project. In December, the developers announced that no new updates would be released for the game in 2025, though the servers would continue to operate.

The layoffs were not isolated to Rocksteady; they also impacted Warner Bros. Games Montreal, the studio behind Batman: Arkham Origins and Gotham Knights. In December, 99 employees from this studio were let go.

The situation escalated when the game was released to early access users, who encountered severe bugs. The Suicide Squad servers crashed multiple times, preventing players from accessing the game. One particularly egregious bug even exposed a major storyline spoiler, and there were widespread complaints about the gameplay experience.

Prominent gaming publications expressed their dissatisfaction with the game, leading to a significant number of early access refunds. According to analytics firm McLuck, the troubled launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League resulted in a 791% surge in refund requests.

As of now, it remains uncertain what Rocksteady Studios will focus on next.