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Rumor: Warner Bros Discovery may shutter Rocksteady Studios

Camreezie

Member
Even if this is a disreputable source, doesn't take a genius to see this outcome. Little guy pays for the man's mistakes. Tell me a new story.


To be honest that's most game companies that we grew up with and are still around. Bioware, Volition (RIP), dare I even say Naughty Dog. The industry is a volatile one, we're in the gig economy era, and talent is often a revolving door. The more important thing is to maintain the company culture after talent comes and goes, which western devs are particularly bad at.


This is destructive path. You want Batman games from them until the end of time? The well will run dry. They were talented enough to come up with game changing mechanics in the first game because they took a risk where no one else did. What they should have done alternate with new IP they want to do so they can keep evolving forward. Suicide Squad was forced on them. Despite what many of you think creativity and innovation are lifeblood of video games.
Warner Bros own enough interesting IP that they could put their own arkhamesque spin on so i really dont see that being a problem. Dune, the matrix, a bunch of others are right there they could alternate between these and arkham, they just got greedy
 

Gambit2483

Member
They'll never admit they were wrong. See: Disney
Disney be like:
UAlGuYv.gif
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
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
It’s not that straightforward in this case. Rocksteady management caused a lot of the issues with development.
 

SJRB

Gold Member
Think about how wild it is that we live in a time where we get a headline saying Rocksteady, one of the most critically acclaimed videogame developers of all time, might be getting shut down.

Absolutely insane and fuck WB for putting them in this position.
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Everyone acting like it's just because it was a GaaS game that it failed.
 

YOU PC BRO?!

Gold Member
Its sad to say but they deserve this...

Arkham Knight released in summer 2015. Rocksteady had years and a practically limitless budget to release their next game. Instead of making a next-gen Arkham game like everyone wanted... or Batman vs Superman, Batman of the Future, Superman game, Flash game or even a dedicated Justice League they go with the Suicide Squad? Not even Assault on Arkham? Even worse it was some multiplayer live service crap. Literally no-one wanted that. Further, they turned Batman into a villain and had him die a ridiculous death. An insulting finale for Kevin Conroy as it was his last time voicing the character. It gets worse, in the interim since the Arkham games, Rocksteady has sold its soul to DEI. Now we got some weirdo fat lesbian looking ugly gender swapped Mr. Freeze. I may be in the minority on this one but I don't want a company capable of putting that garbage out there to be responsible for a new Batman game.
 

Dirk Benedict

Gold Member

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.
You know what? I'm going to lay it out here and now:
Fuck The Suicide Squad. The movies, game, comic. Fuck all that bullshit. Everytime I see them push it, it's some convoluted mess that always fails to meet whatever financial milestone is was obligated to reach upon it's greenlight.
The movies, failures. This "franchise" or whatever you want to refer it as, is junk. I'll be kind if pissed off if this stupid shit gets Rocksteady closed down.
It would be such a bummer to fall to this cursed shit. !!!&(!*^&!! :messenger_pouting:
 

Vick

Member
To me what happened to this once ELITE studio is the biggest crying fucking shame of the generation.

Arkham Asylum put them immediately on my gaming olympus, but in 2015 noone could ever convince me the studio responsibile for Akrham Knight wasn't the very best on the planet at that moment..

GIF by MLB


Even accepting the insulting GaaS nature of their recent game it still seems impossible to me that studio could make such a hot pile of shit, absent Sefton Hill and all.
 
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.
Well, it depends on where Jason's getting his information from. If it's within the studio then that person's not going to know if Rocksteady is safe or not.

He mentioned in the article how some at Rocksteady are aiding in the development of the Director's Cut of Hogwarts Legacy. WB would be smart to wait until after the development of Hogwarts DC is finished before dissolving the Rocksteady.
 
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To be fair. David Zaslav will sell his family to make WBD profitable. While this is an unsubstantiated rumour, it also wouldn't be out of character for him. He's already been talking about how it cost them $200m.

Surprised this is the only post here mentioning that slapnuts.

The guy makes Bernie Stolar look like Satoru Iwata.
 

Mhmmm 2077

Member
Close them, open a new branch in Poland, hire industry vets that left CDPR, Techland and other studios. Let them cook, don't interrupt.
 

Life Diff

Member
In fairness, if we believe Jason, this is down to poor creative and not the publisher. Rare occasion where WB isn't at fault
 
Already started (potentially)

I hope so. I have a feeling Warner bros forced Rocksteady to make a gaas piece of shit. Hope the arkham developers leave rocksteady and join this new company.
 

Barakov

Member
What would that even look like? We all go back to playing 8bit games on CRTs?
That's the other part of this : I don't even know what a hard reset would look like. It just seems to me as just someone who plays videogames that there are more than a few people in places of power/creative input who just don't have talent. Part of the reason some games suck today is that there are more than a few who either a) just bad at their jobs or b) don't have the experience necessary to make games well. People much smarter than me need to figure this out because the current path the industry is on is just going to lead to more mass lay offs.
 

Loomy

Thinks Microaggressions are Real
That's the other part of this : I don't even know what a hard reset would look like. It just seems to me as just someone who plays videogames that there are more than a few people in places of power/creative input who just don't have talent. Part of the reason some games suck today is that there are more than a few who either a) just bad at their jobs or b) don't have the experience necessary to make games well. People much smarter than me need to figure this out because the current path the industry is on is just going to lead to more mass lay offs.
People have talent. They're just making the games they want to make, telling the stories they want to make. This is why diversity of perspective and experiences is important. Otherwise you get the same people making the same thing over and over again.
 

Dazraell

Member
Something I feel is worth to point out is that source of this comes from a streamer who delivered this rumor wrapped in a "I'm sure you all came to same conclusions" type of scoop. There was this report by Schreier posted the other day about Rocksteady which said that majority of the studio is currently busy with working on Hogwarts Legacy: Director's Cut and is in a middle of pitching a new singleplayer project which is supposed to come back to their roots. So unless something changes, it doesn't look like Warner is closing them down at the moment
 
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YOU PC BRO?!

Gold Member
The Rocksteady that released the Arkham games is gone. All thats left is yet another DEI infested caricature of a development studio. More concerned with adding characters like that wierdo gender swapped Mr. Freeze than making a compelling video game. The current team isn't capable of making the kind of Batman game people that played the fantastic Arkham games expect.
 
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