Criticism of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is plentiful on social media, and you might be tired of hearing it.
It’s back again, however, after gaming insider Jason Schreier and Bloomberg released an extensive report on the behind-the-scenes disaster that went down and sealed the game’s fate. Mismanagement seems to be the name of the game, and there’s no more question about why it turned out the way it did.
Suicide Squad’s Director Killed an Idea Months into Experimentation
In Bloomberg’s report about the reason for the game’s failure (which isn’t Sweet Baby Inc.), Schreier detailed how Rocksteady’s co-founders, Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill, had ditched plans for a project named Stones, which would’ve been an original multiplayer puzzle-solving game.
Instead, they were enchanted by the idea of making an online multiplayer game with live-service content; something that the studio had never ventured into before.
Supposedly, the leaders’ vision of the game changed constantly throughout development, which confused staff. Yes, even they wondered why Captain Boomerang had gunplay overusing his namesake weapon.
Hill caused a lot of bottlenecks throughout the development process, as he wanted to manually review everyone’s work:
He scrapped big chunks of the script and struggled to convey his evolving ideas, they said, confessing that he hadn’t spent much time with competing games such as Destiny.
At one point, Hill suggested adding vehicles to the game; However, the four characters that were playable at the time already had abilities that let them travel faster.
Why, they wondered, would players using Deadshot or King Shark bother with a motorcycle when they could just soar through the air?
The idea was scrapped after many months of experimenting. For better or for worse, we’re not sure yet. Either way, the game is on a steady path to shutting down soon, seeing as how the studio has already moved on.
Staff Questioned the Feasibility of the Project
When Rocksteady’s project started, it was kept a secret from many people, even new hires. Newly onboarded staff were surprised to find out the game was a live-service project, simply because it was far from what the studio was known for. Due to this, a lot of staff left soon after.
As the project kept evolving, even the remaining studio members didn’t seem to have much faith in it. Some staff approached management to appease their concerns but were promised it would all come together at the last minute.
Several employees adopted the term “toxic positivity” to describe the culture of the company, which discouraged criticism.
Supposedly, leadership was confident the game would turn out well, despite other studios with a similar background (releasing a live-service game after single-player successes) failing miserably. You can imagine, that wouldn’t inspire much confidence in anyone.
With a tumultuous development process like this, it makes sense why the game didn’t seem polished, focused, or even fun. What do you think about this whole situation? Let us know in the comments below!
