The studio behind the Batman: Arkham franchise of games, and more recently Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Rocksteady, has been hit by a new round of layoffs. According to Eurogamer, the layoffs happened before the end of 2024, and included programmers, members of the artist teams, some of the QA staff.
Parent company Warner Bros. Games hasn’t made any comment on the layoffs affecting Rocksteady as of yet.
The studio was hit with a round of layoffs back in September 2024 as well, which resulted in Rocksteady losing more than half of its QA staff at the time. The reasons for both of these layoffs might be due to the poor reception and sales of Rocksteady’s most recent release, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Our own review of the game criticised it heavily for its mediocrity, which was considered a shame owing to the fact that Rocksteady has, in the past, made well-reviewed single-player titles. A key point of criticism about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is the fact that it is a multiplayer-only live-service title with repetitive gameplay.
Warner Bros. Games had revealed after the game’s initial release that it had fallen short of sales expectations, resulting in a 41 percent drop in revenue.
The layoffs have come despite other rumours indicating that a new game based on Batman is currently in development at Rocksteady. The new title is expected to be a part of the Arkham series, but neither the studio, nor WB Games have confirmed the title.
Other rumours indicate that development of the game was likely inspired by the studio wanting to go back to its roots in developing single-player titles rather than multiplayer live-service ones like Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
For more details and insight into the history and current status of Rocksteady games, check out our coverage of the studio’s rise and fall from last year.
