Rocksteady hit by layoffs after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League underperforms
Rocksteady staff have told Eurogamer of redundancies at the studio, following the underperformance of Suicide Squad: Ki…
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Eurogamer: Rocksteady hit by layoffs after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League underperforms
- Thread starter AlanMoore
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Unfortunate, but inevitable. Hopefully they get another stab at a great single player game, even though a lot of the talent that made them a household name is no longer at the studio.
Ah yes, the inevitable consequence of gutting the QA department because a game underperformed, the direct relation is completley obvious and it's not just an easy scapegoat to get rid of more people.
If people after these 2 years STILL believe that Publishers are hiring and firing according to some kind of meritocracy I don't know what else to tell you. You can produce a GOTY contender (Hi-Fi Rush, Tango Gameworks), you can develop one of the most successful, viral games of the last few years (Fall Guys, Mediatonic), you can literally just finish your game and not even have any reviews or sale numbers released (Visions of Mana, Ouka Studios) and your studio still either shuts down or gets completley gutted. And sometimes studios release huge flops and get to grow even more! It doesn't matter. These decisions aren't being based on merit or success.
If people after these 2 years STILL believe that Publishers are hiring and firing according to some kind of meritocracy I don't know what else to tell you. You can produce a GOTY contender (Hi-Fi Rush, Tango Gameworks), you can develop one of the most successful, viral games of the last few years (Fall Guys, Mediatonic), you can literally just finish your game and not even have any reviews or sale numbers released (Visions of Mana, Ouka Studios) and your studio still either shuts down or gets completley gutted. And sometimes studios release huge flops and get to grow even more! It doesn't matter. These decisions aren't being based on merit or success.
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They should probably gut whichever manager-class idiot thought making a Suicide Squad game was a good idea rather than the people who bugcheck.
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Nah it's a round of boni and golden parachutes for them
This sucks. Basically everyone knew it was coming considering the worthless state of this garbage industry, but it would've been nice to see Rocksteady get a chance to try something else. I hope Suicide Squad doesn't sink them for good.
When a business flounders, it's usually the workers who suffer and not management
Shit sucks
It's not making an SS game that was mistake. The mistake was making it another multiplayer GAAS game in an already saturated market.
Surely something nicer could've been done outside of that typical money-magnet scope.
Which is crazy because so many have moved to HundredStar Games. Hopefully they pick up many of the talent laid off.
Edit: Didn't notice it's QA, but doesn't make them any less important or talented.
Edit: Didn't notice it's QA, but doesn't make them any less important or talented.
Such a shame. I played and loved Suicide Squad just like their other fully single player games; at every step you could see that it was the same quality Rocksteady.
I wish more people ignored the GAAS hate the game got and gave the game a chance.
I wish more people ignored the GAAS hate the game got and gave the game a chance.
That's a shame since I still really enjoy the game.
I mean, HD2 came out around the same time and showed there is still space in the co-op shooter GAAS market. And a lot of people come out and say it doesn't have a lot of competition, which is wrong but perhaps demonstrates it's not that saturated. And then Once Human and First Descendent this year...
I think people just jump to this specific conclusion too often.
This.
I mean, HD2 came out around the same time and showed there is still space in the co-op shooter GAAS market. And a lot of people come out and say it doesn't have a lot of competition, which is wrong but perhaps demonstrates it's not that saturated. And then Once Human and First Descendent this year...
I think people just jump to this specific conclusion too often.
Sadly saw it coming, doesn't mean it doesn't hurt.
I hope the employees find a safe place to land.
Fuck trend chasing executives.
I hope the employees find a safe place to land.
Fuck trend chasing executives.
Big publishers seemingly absolutely despise the QA so it kinda tracks.
Holy shit, what a fucked up situation where you just have a kid and are supposed to be enjoying the birth of new life and being a parent, then being told "you're redundant" and let go.
Fuckeddddd up industry. When are people going to protest for layoff reform? Should've been happening by now, the system of rotten and needs changing to match what Japan has in this regard.
Fuckeddddd up industry. When are people going to protest for layoff reform? Should've been happening by now, the system of rotten and needs changing to match what Japan has in this regard.
I think SS as a concept has limited reach and I'll try to break down my train of thought on this. The original movie adaptation from 8 years ago which was mega-profitable but is now largely viewed as a joke. The James Gunn one didn't even break even. People seem to like the Peacemaker TV show but Rocksteady elected not to include him or include any of the movie versions of the characters. The other game to do "original" versions of characters more famous from the movie, Guardians of the Galaxy, was also a flop (I liked the game but it is what it is). Avengers did this too and flopped. Midnight Suns did their own thing, performed below expectations and its director left Firaxis over it.
I think it's clear that audiences seem to often reject the concepts and versions that hew more closely to the comic books. Marvel Rivals might be the outlier since they're including comics lore with a twist.
Nah the whole thing was a mess. Even ignoring that Suicide Squad as an IP is clearly not as popular as they think it is, the premise/plot was a completely unforced error in terms of PR. That the game had a fully fledged story mode and still did as badly as it did suggests the WoM was just awful in all aspects, not just the multiplayer.
In the UK, you can be paid off immediately if you have a Payment in Lieu of Notice clause in your contract. Essentially the employer will pay the employee the salary that they'd be expected to earn in their legal mandated mandatory notice period, and let them go immediately.
I get Helldivers 2 was $40 but it also had day 1 cosmetic DLC (yes, it could be earned eventually) but it's not like Helldivers had this tremendous amount of content either.
I loved Helldivers 2 but after a couple weeks, I felt like I had pretty much seen everything. There wasn't really a story either. IGN said "No 2 Missions Play Out the Same Way" about Helldivers 2 and I am wondering if we played the same game given robots were broken at launch.
Which is to say - I wonder how much expectations play into a game's review / reception. It's the old "I hated Wandavision because it had no Mephisto" despite Mephisto never even being promised or on the table.
If Suicide Squad was a single player game, does it do well? Look at Guardians of the Galaxy which flopped. Nothing is guaranteed I guess.
QA is generally the worst treated department within the company, the lowest paid and generally (grossly) seen as the lowest "skilled", while generally having quite a few people.
It's also the department the most likely to unionize because of all of the above.
I have about ZERO FUCKING TIME for binning people off in the middle of maternity/paternity. Having a baby is stressful enough, slapping in money and employment concerns is the least of what you need.
IIRC, according to a LinkedIn job update, they're already working on a single player game just like Jason Schreier said they would
A friend of mine just got fired from his company and they waited until the very last day of his paternity leave to tell him.
Special kind of evil.
And he's American so he can't just extend leave like we can in Canada.
I don't think this proof that people are rejecting the non-movie versions of the characters at all.
You have Batman Arkham and Spider-Man being gargantuan hits in recent years, and Wolverine is likely to be more comic-based than Hugh Jackman's version and I'd bet that game is going to do gangbusters too. Marvel Rivals is not an outlier, it's just all the failed games didn't capture wide audiences for a variety of other reasons, be it marketing, gameplay, game quality/reviews, negative word of mouth, etc.
Not just a Suicide Squad game, but a live service looter shooter where you kill the Justice League instead of playing as them.
It's the exact opposite of what I wanted out of Rocksteady. Even on paper, it's dumb as hell.
Well they better hope their proof of concept turns out amazing because that company can shut down any month is my guess.
The last Rocksteady Arkham game was 9 years ago, "recent years" would not apply here. Spider-Man I would argue is too big to fail (Broadway musicals notwithstanding)
I don't claim to be 100% correct, I'm just explaining the basis for where I'm coming from.
This sucks, but unfortunately not surprising at all. Only hope for Rocksteady is for them to bounce back and make something closer to Arkham in terms of quality and scope and not try to chase the trends.
Hones question, what makes HD2 Gaas? It is exactly same as first game with 3rd person camera. Is it because they sell cosmetics? Or the game map is more dynamic?
It's a continuing trend. If anything Marvel Rivals proves this is just still true, and Avengers launched at the peak of its MCU popularity so arguably would also be just as 'too big to fail' as Spidey.
People aren't avoiding more comic-focused titles, they just aren't buying blindly anymore. Pointing out games as exceptions is just eliminating evidence to prove a rule. There's just no one simple reason as to why these games failed.