Image: Rocksteady Games
Rocksteady is reportedly cutting staff after its Suicide Squad game underperformed.
Batman: Arkham developer Rocksteady Games is reportedly laying off a number of its staff after its latest release, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, flopped.
Previously, Warner Bros. Discovery had attributed a massive Q2 revenue drop of 42% to the game’s financial underperformance. But now, Eurogamer reports that the developer is “restructuring” by laying off workers.
Rocksteady Games has reportedly been laying off staff over the past month, according to Eurogamer. The outlet reports that Rocksteady’s QA department has shrunk down to almost half of its former size, going from having 33 members to just 15.
These layoffs aren’t limited to the developer’s QA team, which is meant to check videogames for bugs and other quality issues during development. One staff member was reportedly told that they had been laid off in the middle of paternity leave. According to Eurogamer, these layoffs are bound to impact game development at the studio, as fewer developers will have to do more work than before.
Senior management staff at the studio have also confirmed that the quality of its products will likely “suffer as a result” of these layoffs. Both junior and veteran staff were impacted by these firings, which come directly after the financial and critical underperformance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Warner Bros. Discovery reported a massive 41% drop in revenue in Q2 2024 compared to Q2 2023 due to the game’s underperformance. However, it should be noted that Hogwarts Legacy also helped to bump game revenue for the company last year, and Suicide Squad simply failed to deliver the same results this year.