Highlights
- Rocksteady surprised fans by making Suicide Squad a live service title, leading to mixed reviews on launch.
- However, fans blaming Warner Bros. for the game's directional shift is unfair, as Rocksteady leadership apparently made the call.
- Ultimately, the live-service approach can be viewed as a contributing factor to the game's poor performance, as it is not the direction many fans wanted to see the Arkhamverse go in.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League surprised many when Warner Bros.' gaming division revealed it to be a live service title, though developer Rocksteady Studios was reportedly never actually required to make it one. The studio is most known for their strictly single-player Batman: Arkham games, which made the sudden shift in genre all the more puzzling for longtime fans, especially after finding out it was never forced onto them in the first place.
The live service model was the source of many Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League fans' complaints about the game when it was revealed and during its closed alpha period, leading to middling to low review scores on launch. Players noted during the alpha test period that the moment-to-moment action was sometimes fun, but the game overall was marred by a ton of grinding required to unlock many of its unique items or cosmetics.
Ironically, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League isn't the Tone DC Games Need Right Now
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League attempted to ride the success of the James Gunn movie, but DC games need a different approach.
While many blamed Warner Bros. for the sudden shift in direction for the Arkhamverse, a recent earnings call from the publisher confirms that leadership at Rocksteady were the ones who ultimately made the call to turn Suicide Squad into a live service game. The report, which came from WB Discovery CEO David Zaslav and was reported on by Jason Schreier, seems to confirm that the publisher gave Rocksteady some degree of choice in the matter, and Rocksteady's bosses gravitated toward the live service angle themselves.
WB Is Apparently Not to Blame For Suicide Squad: KTJL's Controversial Approach
While it is unclear who specifically at Rocksteady made such a decision, co-founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker left the studio in 2022, shortly after the game entered full development, which has led to some speculation regarding their role in it. Since they were the main heads of the studio when the game began development, some believe they were aware that the direction would be unpopular and left to avoid public backlash, though this is purely speculation.
Despite being set within the Batman: Arkham universe, the always-online "looter shooter" approach with a battle pass system failed to impress fans of those games, especially since it was the first full-fledged "Arkhamverse" title since 2015's Arkham Knight. Zaslav allegedly referred to "the disappointing release of Suicide Squad" in the same earnings call, citing how the game has not performed on the level the company was expecting.
The controversy surrounding the game did not stop there, either, as fans also took issue with the game's treatment of Batman in what was assumed at the time to be the late Kevin Conroy's final vocal performance as the character. Without sales numbers and budget information, it is unclear just how much of a loss Warner Bros. Discovery suffered from the game's lackluster performance, though Zaslav's comments confirm the profit hit was significant.
