A new rumor claims that Warner Bros. Discovery is having internal discussions about shutting down Rocksteady after the developer’s Sweet Baby Inc. influenced ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ game instantly became a financial failure and forced the company to take a $200 million impairment charge on the game.
The ‘Suicide Squad’ in ‘Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League ‘(2024), Rocksteady
During the company’s first quarter earnings results webcast, Chief Financial Officer Gunnar Wiedenfels stated, “Starting with Studios, the $400 million+ year-over-year decline during Q1 was primarily due to the very tough comp we faced in games against the success of Hogwart’s Legacy last year in the first quarter, in conjunction with the disappointing Suicide Squad release this past quarter, which we impaired, leading to a $200 million impact to EBITDA during the first quarter.”
Weidenfels had previously detailed during the company’s fourth quarter 2023 earnings webcast, “This year, Suicide Squad, one of our key video game releases in 2024, has fallen short of our expectations since its release earlier in the quarter, setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1.”
Harley Quinn about to execute Batman in ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ (2024), Rocksteady
These comments reflect the game’s poor player base as seen via Steam DB charts. According to the data, the game had peak concurrent players of 13,459 when it first launched at the beginning of February. However, players quickly abandoned the game with the most recent 24-hour peak only hitting 286 players.
Sales estimates for the game on Steam range between 127,600 and 259,600.
‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ Steam DB charts
Now, a new rumor from YouTuber Vara Dark declares, “Warner Bros is internally talking about closing Rocksteady or halving their 250 employees after Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’s bomb.
Dark continued, “I have heavily covered Warner Bros Games and ‘Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’ since release because of what it represented for Warner Bros Games and a beloved franchise. When it was greenlit, we were seeing a giant scramble for studios to create live-service games and this one released too late plus the content did not resonate with players.”
Harley Quinn in Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League (2024), Rocksteady
Furthermore, she noted, “Rocksteady Studios’ co-founders and studio heads also departed the company back in 2022. Rocksteady is a shell of the company it used to be and we saw this happen recently with Embracer Group and Volition, a company that had 30 years of experience under their belt and it sounds as though Warner Bros is planning to pull the plug on Rocksteady, too. ”
“They have no other games publicly announced and there does not seem to be any confidence in them anymore. Even back in 2016 we got the Batman: Arkham VR game that was developed by Rocksteady and the new Batman: Arkham Shadow VR game is being done by Camouflaj. Only time will tell. Doesn’t seem like the future is very bright for Rocksteady,” she concluded.
While I do not usually speak on insider information I receive, I think this is one we all have pieced together ourselves. Warner Bros is internally talking about closing Rocksteady or halving their 250 employees after Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League’s bomb.
Just last…
— Vara Dark (@Vara_Dark) June 6, 2024
On top of this rumor, the game is featuring more negative press surrounding the upcoming character of Mrs. Freeze it plans to introduce. An alleged first look of the character was shared to the GamingLeaksAndRumors subreddit.
Alleged first look of Mrs. Freeze for ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ (2024), Rocksteady
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The character was previously rumored by X user Miller Ross who reacted to footage of the game seeing Brainiac refer to players as Freeze. Ross detailed this would be a new character named Victoria.
Saw this making the rounds today. Yeah, it seems like some of Brainiac’s incidental combat banter featuring Victoria got missorted and given to Harley by accident. Oops! https://t.co/6ie8dfpUma
— Miller Ross (@mmmmmmmmiller) February 5, 2024
What do you make of this rumor that Warner Bros. Discovery might shut down Rocksteady?
Good – as an Arkham superfan, I hope Rocksteady is shut down completely after this. Would love to see studios like Ubisoft, CD Projekt Red, Crystal Dynamics and others that have embraced the woke / DEI / ESG ideology follow suit as well and go out of business.