Warner Bros. Games is having a tough time and could use a favorable headline with Suicide Squad.
In recent months, the gaming industry has been going through a nightmare for several big companies. It started with Microsoft when Xbox shut down four studios, and Sony’s Bungie laid off 450 staff from Destiny 2. We all know that Warner Bros. Games isn’t having the best of their time due to the failure of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Now, layoffs have begun to impact Warner Bros. Discovery’s gaming division, casting more doubt on the possibility of their intentions to compete with Marvel. In June, rumors surfaced that they were working on a new superhero game based on the Batman world created by Matt Reeves; we assumed they had everything under control.
However, James Gunn, CEO of DC Studios, poured cold water on it without providing any encouraging news on their game strategies to help ease fans’ frustration. The only positive news was that WB confirmed the new single-player game Rocksteady had proposed while working on Hogwarts Legacy. Based on one developer’s profile, production on this new single-player game began in June. But things quickly changed after the positive news had just been out briefly. Rocksteady has allegedly begun layoffs, with their live service shooter’s alleged failure as a contributing factor.
Unfortunately, the QA team—tasked with finding and correcting game bugs—took the biggest hits. Warner Bros. Games laid off more than half of the staff, reducing the QA department from 33 to 15 and blaming the lack of success of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League for the layoffs. That being said, it’s unsurprising that many games have bugs when they first come out since most publishers often consider QA an unnecessary expense.
Even if Suicide Squad is already a terrible game, we can’t imagine how much worse it will be with half the QA staff gone, especially since two full seasons of content remain. It has been reported that other divisions of Rocksteady Studio have also seen layoffs; however, the exact numbers are yet to be confirmed.
Since early this year, all the studios have been shut down, including Ouka Studios, which was shut down during the launch day of Visions of Mana even when the game did well. Hundreds of people have lost employment in this industry. Things might get considerably worse from here. Concord’s unprecedented failure ensures that more layoff announcements will follow, particularly at Sony.
Even though Firewalk Studios has been radio silent since even after the massive negative feedback about Concord from the gaming community, it’s likely that they’ll have a similar fate to Bungie with Destiny 2. Rocksteady Studios, however, may be largely unchanged, and they plan to go on to their next game while still completing its four-season live-service shooter. With all the attention to other superhero ventures, we’re hoping DC will finally have some positive news to share.
