• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Rumor: Warner Bros Discovery may shutter Rocksteady Studios

Needlecrash

Needlecrash

Member
thatparkplace.com

Rumor: Warner Bros. Discovery Discussing Shuttering Rocksteady After Sweet Baby Inc. Influenced 'Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League' Disaster

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...
thatparkplace.com thatparkplace.com

I didn't see any articles on this yet. Although it wouldn't be a surprise, it would be a fucking shame. To see how far they've fallen. From Urban Chaos and Arkham Asylum to the disaster of Suicide Squad.
 
rm082e

rm082e

Member
Is Rocksteady even the company many of us loved anymore? My impression was most of the creative minds behind the Arkham games had left.

Not that I ever want to see anyone lose their jobs. It just doesn't seem like there's any hope for them to make great games like the Arkham series again. If that's accurate, I won't feel bad about them going away.
 
Last edited:
Dacvak

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Make It Stop The Office GIF
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
SlimySnake said:
Jason just wrote an article that said the complete opposite. The studio is very small by todays standard and they fucked up only because of WB executive meddling. The execs have no case to shut them down unless they want to fire themselves as well.
Click to expand...
WB is hurting on every front financially, not just gaming. Anything is possible.

Wonder Woman is also a mystery.
 
Last edited:
vaibhavpisal

vaibhavpisal

Member
I think the game they delivered was well made.

They just rubbed players wrong way.

Its basically a single player title with GAAS elements. Not even a full on GAAS title.
 
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
Needlecrash said:
thatparkplace.com

Rumor: Warner Bros. Discovery Discussing Shuttering Rocksteady After Sweet Baby Inc. Influenced 'Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League' Disaster

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...
thatparkplace.com thatparkplace.com

I didn't see any articles on this yet. Although it wouldn't be a surprise, it would be a fucking shame. To see how far they've fallen. From Urban Chaos and Arkham Asylum to the disaster of Suicide Squad.
Click to expand...
It's just such a plainly shitty thing to watch happen, and not be able to do anything about.

Amazing studio with storied history is asked to do something they've never done before > Studio agrees to do it, per publisher request > Everyone observing knows it's not going to do well > Publisher refuses to pivot and just makes them keep making this product that is not expected to do well > Product launches and predictably doesn't do well and is a commercial flop > Studio is punished by being down-sized, or shuttered > Management that forced them to make shitty product in the first place is totally unscathed, and goes on to ruin something else
 
Last edited:
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
Killjoy-NL said:
Underperform and get canned.

Goes for any studio. Same as why Zipper, Evolution and London Studios got closed.

I think people should seperate emotion from business.
Click to expand...
The issue is Rocksteady *was an amazing studio that produced best-in-class single-player games and were extremely successful. Publisher interference forced them to make a live-service game they had zero experience making. As is our shitty model of the modern era of human indecency and ineptitude, the wrong people are being punished.
 
Last edited:
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Let's wait for a better source.

SlimySnake said:
Jason just wrote an article that said the complete opposite. The studio is very small by todays standard and they fucked up only because of WB executive meddling. The execs have no case to shut them down unless they want to fire themselves as well.
Click to expand...

This is a pretty trash website, just look at the homepage and you'll see.

Their sourcing is useless.
 
Last edited:
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
Ozriel said:
Jason’s article pins even more of the blame on Rocksteady’s leadership team.
Click to expand...
The underlying cause of the issue with leadership was the studio was being forced to make a game in this genre/model that they had zero experience in. That's the whole reason this all fell apart and what led to the ultimate disaster at last year's SoP reveal, and then the predictably horrible launch reception.

Bean counters on the C-suite floor meddling, with no actual experience or subject matter knowledge. And hence the shitty, predictable result.
 
Last edited:
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
Dr. Wilkinson said:
The issue is Rocksteady *was an amazing studio that produced best-in-class single-player games and were extremely successful. Publisher interference forced them to make a live-service game they had zero experience making. As is our shitty model of the modern era of human indecency and ineptitude, the wrong people are being punished.
Click to expand...
Honestly, they made 1 great game. Not exaggerating. Arkham Asylum is phenomenal. I love it to this day, and it's still basically just ripped off for Spider Man which sells a ton.

All they did after that was repeat the same thing, but make it open world, abandoning a lot of the interesting level design. Arkham Knight was a great looking game visually too, so they have that. And the Batmobile controlled well enough, so that's something new.

The jury was out that whole time on if they could ever really make a 2nd game. Personally, I think they could have. Suicide Squad still looks pretty fun. Could have made a sick super hero campaign with different heroes I bet in a single player game.
 
Last edited:
skit_data

skit_data

Member
The most sad thing about all of it is that one could see it coming from a mile away. As soon as the studio heads left it became pretty clear what sequence of events would follow IMO. I assume that Suicide Squad and Redfall might be the the indirect reason The Last of Us MP development was shut down -
Putting a single game developer on a multiplayer project might end up being a total shitshow that possibly kills the studio.

Lots of people integral to single player game development might pack their stuff and leave. If the game bombs you have spent years of development, can't recoup costs effectively and you're stuck with a studio which entire infrastructure is now different from what made them a name in the industry in the first place.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule but it's pretty surprising some publishers didn't seem to account for it. Or maybe the sad truth is that they probably did and said "fuck it" while sacrificing good single player developers on the altar of GaaS.
 
Punished Miku

Punished Miku

Human Rights Subscription Service
skit_data said:
The most sad thing about all of it is that one could see it coming from a mile away. As soon as the studio heads left it became pretty clear what sequence of events would follow IMO. I assume that Suicide Squad and Redfall might be the the indirect reason The Last of Us MP development was shut down -
Putting a single game developer on a multiplayer project might end up being a total shitshow that possibly kills the studio.
Click to expand...
And I honestly still don't really understand why. It's just weird that studios are so narrowly focused now. Pretty sure Nintendo took a bunch of people that never made a shooter or multiplayer game and came up with Splatoon, and then ran free GAAS drops for years off it.

Back in the day studios used to make different types of games. I guess they just can't do it anymore.
 
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
skit_data said:
The most sad thing about all of it is that one could see it coming from a mile away. As soon as the studio heads left it became pretty clear what sequence of events would follow IMO. I assume that Suicide Squad and Redfall might be the the indirect reason The Last of Us MP development was shut down -
Putting a single game developer on a multiplayer project might end up being a total shitshow that possibly kills the studio.

Lots of people integral to single player game development might pack their stuff and leave. If the game bombs you have spent years of development, can't recoup costs effectively and you're stuck with a studio which entire infrastructure is now different from what made them a name in the industry in the first place.

Sure, there are exceptions to the rule but it's pretty surprising some publishers didn't seem to account for it. Or maybe the sad truth is that they probably did and said "fuck it" while sacrificing good single player developers on the altar of GaaS.
Click to expand...
Yep. C-suite executives. The bean counters. Everything they know comes from a spreadsheet and wanting to earn more money than they did before. It's a lack of subject matter knowledge, as well as tunnel-vision and not being able to see the big picture.
 
Last edited:
Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
Ozriel said:
That’s for execs

People here are consumers. Their side of the equation is the ‘emotion’ side.
Click to expand...
I'm a consumer and I don't get emotional over these things.
If you want to keep your job, you have to meet your employer's criteria.

Just common sense.

Dr. Wilkinson said:
The issue is Rocksteady *was an amazing studio that produced best-in-class single-player games and were extremely successful. Publisher interference forced them to make a live-service game they had zero experience making. As is our shitty model of the modern era of human indecency and ineptitude, the wrong people are being punished.
Click to expand...
Haven't been following Rocksteady, but the pieces of news I did caught onto makes it seem their games were underwhelming regardless of the Gaas aspect.
 
GymWolf

GymWolf

Member
On one hand, the first 2 batman games were great, especially the first one.

On the other hand they brought the absolute plague and saving grace of lazy devs that is free flow combat into gaming so i'm just gonna be mildly sad if they close down.
 
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
Killjoy-NL said:
Haven't been following Rocksteady, but the pieces of news I did caught onto makes it seem their games were underwhelming regardless of the Gaas aspect.
Click to expand...
Huh?

Their last three games (since 2009), 92, 94, 87 Metacritic. 2009, 2011 and 2015. Because of the complete disaster of WB management trying to turn them into a live-service studio, they went from 2015-2023 and in all that time since Arkham Knight, only managed to release one shitty game. Not sure what news you're referring to, but prior to Suicide Squad, Rocksteady had a stellar reputation.
 
Last edited:
Plague Doctor

Plague Doctor

Member
It's only Rocksteady in name alone. The vast majority of the devs that made the old games amazing are long gone for years now.
 
Last edited:
Killjoy-NL

Killjoy-NL

Gold Member
Dr. Wilkinson said:
Huh?

Their last three games (since 2009), 92, 94, 87 Metacritic. 2009, 2011 and 2015. Because of the complete disaster of WB management trying to turn them into a live-service studio, they went from 2015-2023 and after all that only released one shitty game.
Click to expand...
How about sales? You can make the best game in the world, but if people don't care about it, you failed at your job.
 
ResilientBanana

ResilientBanana

Member
rm082e said:
Is Rocksteady even the company many of us loved anymore? My impression was most of the creative minds behind the Arkham games had left.

Not that I ever want to see anyone lose their jobs. It just doesn't seem like there's any hope for them to make great games like the Arkham series again. If that's accurate, I won't feel bad about them going away.
Click to expand...
I mean, some of the leaders for sure. But the production value on Suicide Squad surely dictates that they do have some talented individuals there. As far as I know, it also did not come out as a buggy mess of a game. This is unfortunate news, but chances are, a lot of the good ones might end up at Hundred Star Games.
 
BennyBlanco

BennyBlanco

aka IMurRIVAL69
guess it really was a suicide squad. deeply retarded to not simply make another Batman game. They saw what happened with the far more popular Avengers IP and a spectacular flop of a GaaS game, and said “yea we want to do what those guys did”.
 
rm082e

rm082e

Member
Killjoy-NL said:
I'm a consumer and I don't get emotional over these things.
If you want to keep your job, you have to meet your employer's criteria.

Just common sense.
Click to expand...

SS:KTJL was clearly a case of the executive team setting a goal for Rocksteady that they had no chance of meeting. They set them up for failure. If that team is then blamed for the failure and laid off, and the executive team doesn't take any responsibility for the failure, that's a shitty situation.
 
Dr. Wilkinson

Dr. Wilkinson

Member
Killjoy-NL said:
How about sales? You can make the best game in the world, but if people don't care about it, you failed at your job.
Click to expand...
Asylum sold ~9.5 million. Arkham City sold ~12.5 million copies. Knight sold ~7 million. In no way were any of those games not considered hugely successful, critically or commercially.

Again, the issue was being forced by upper management at WB to make something they had no experience making. Prior to Suicide Squad, Rocksteady had a stellar reputation in the industry.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Warner Bros CEO: "Suicide Squad Release was a disappointment"
Sales-Age 2 3
118
7K
Angry_Megalodon replied
Rocksteady hit by layoffs after Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League underperforms
2 3
131
8K
Drew1440 replied
Jason Scheier/Bloomberg: Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League is Dead on Arrival. Rocksteady has been working on it since 2017.
Opinion 2 3 4 5
245
22K
TheThreadsThatBindUs replied
Bloomberg: Behind ‘Suicide Squad,’ the Year’s Biggest Video-Game Flop
2 3
143
9K
MALpractice311 replied
Suicide : Squad; Kill The Justice League | Review Thread
Analysis Review 4 5 6 7 8
355
33K
Certinty replied
Top Bottom