It seems that there just still isn’t an end in sight for layoffs, as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League developer Rocksteady has reportedly been hit by them.
According to a report from Eurogamer, Rocksteady’s QA department has been essentially cut in half over the past month, going from 33 team members down to 15. This was caused by, you won’t be surprised to hear, Suicide Squad’s poor sales, which Eurogamer says was directly cited as a reason for the studio’s “restructuring.” QA isn’t the only department to have suffered from layoffs either, though it doesn’t appear to be clear which teams have been affected just yet. Apparently one staff member shared publicly on social media over the weekend that they were being made redundant, having learnt this new while in the middle of parental leave.
Rocksteady staff that spoke with Eurogamer, who asked to stay anonymous, said that due to losing so many staff members in QA, which included some team members with specialised knowledge, has left remaining staff with more work. Some staff members that have been affected by the cuts have apparently worked at Rocksteady for more than five years. Staff have also said that senior management have acknowledged that product quality will suffer following the layoffs. An official announcement hasn’t been made by Rocksteady as of yet.
Earlier in the year, a report from Bloomberg looked at what went wrong with Suicide Squad’s development, which also claimed that Warner Bros. Games was looking for its studios to collaborate more, meaning job cuts wouldn’t make sense, though this sentiment now appears to have changed.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was released earlier this year, a live-service co-op title from a studio best known for its single-player titles. It was generally met with mixed reviews from critics and fans alike, and despite semi-regular updates hasn’t managed to capture much of an audience, ultimately leading to a reported $200 million hit to Warner Bros. revenue.
