Eurogamer reported layoffs at Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League studio Rocksteady.
On Monday, the outlet said the developer’s QA team was effectively cut in half from 33 staffers to 15. Other departments were affected, though at time of writing, the total number of redundancies is unclear.
Junior and tenured staff were among those let go. Senior management has reportedly acknowledged product quality will “suffer” with the QA culling, which included employees with “specialized knowledge.”
Sources told Eurogamer the anti-hero shooter’s poor sales were a direct reason for the cuts. Warner Bros. Discovery has been open about the game’s commercial underperformance, even as recently as last month.
Suicide Squad’s hits keep on coming
Similar to the recently scrapped Concord, the saga of Suicide Squad has largely been met with negativity.
A Bloomberg report from June claimed Squad’s issues were caused by a lack of clear direction and Rocksteady (whose previous works were single-player) not having the mentality of a multiplayer studio.
Developers also alleged management would meet their concerns with “toxic positivity,” and thought things would work out in the end. This mentality even spread to Warner Bros itself, which sunk a reported $200 million into the project.
Even with this, Rocksteady will stick with Suicide Squad. WB stressed the studio would see the first year of post-launch content through to the end. It’s unknown how long the game will remain around after that point.