Rocksteady reportedly lays off staff following Suicide Squad woes
Report suggests QA department cut in half, product quality expected to suffer
Rocksteady Studios is reportedly the latest studio to suffer a round of layoffs following the poor performance of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League earlier this year.
Sources told our sister site Eurogamer that multiple departments have been affected, with the QA team among the hardest hit.
According to the report, this department has been halved from 33 members of staff to just 15. Eurogamer's sources said senior management has acknowledged that product quality is likely to suffer.
Dismissed staff range from juniors and newcomers to those with more than five years of experience at the studio.
The restructuring that led to these layoffs is said to be directly linked to the low sales of Suicide Squad, which launched in February to mixed critic reviews and player complaints over the live service-style business model.
GamesIndustry.biz has reached out to Rocksteady and its parent company Warner Bros for comment.
Warner Bros acknowledged shortly after launch that Suicide Squad "[fell] short of expectations]," added to the tough comparison with the launch of Hogwarts Legacy in the same window the previous year.
The company's Studios business (which encompasses TV, film and games) took a $200 million hit during Q1 2024, with Suicide Squad cited as a key factor, and games revenue declined 41% the following quarter (again, in part due to the title's comparison with Hogwarts Legacy).
In June, an extensive report claimed there were various problems during Suicide Squad's development, including frequent changes in vision, perfectionist leadership, and Rocksteady's lack of experience with both multiplayer and live service games.