It"s no secret that the release of developer Rocksteady"s most recent game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, was met with a generally poor reception from both gamers and game reviewers. It also failed sales expectations from its publisher, Warner Bros. Games. Now, a new report claims that the other shoe has dropped, claiming a large number of layoffs at Rocksteady.
Eurogamer reports that it has gotten info from unnamed Rocksteady staff members that the developer"s QA department has been cut down from 33 team members to just 15 workers in the last month. In addition, it stated that an unnamed Rocksteady staff member announced this weekend on a social media account that they had been laid off as well, in the middle of their paternity leave. According to the story, the mass layoffs in Rocksteady"s QA division will add to the work of the remaining 15 team members.
In June, Bloomberg posted a story that reportedly showed how one of the most anticipated games from one of the most well-regarded game developers turned into one of the biggest bombs in recent video game memory. Rocksteady, who had risen to fame on the three single-player games in the Batman: Arkham trilogy, took on a live service game design with Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League. The final result was a game that failed to meet gamer"s expectations and caused Warner Bros. to announce it would take a huge $200 million loss with its development.
The Bloomberg article stated that Rocksteady wants to make a single-player game for its next project, which would certainly be a return to its roots. Meanwhile, Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, the co-founders of Rocksteady, departed the studio some time ago to launch a new developer, Hundred Star, in 2023. An unconfirmed report claims that the studio has received funding from Microsoft to help launch their first unannounced game.