WB’s live-service video game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was one of the most anticipated video games of the year. However, upon its release, the game did not quite meet the expectations of the fans, though the idea sounds quite intriguing on paper, it could not be executed properly. This is quite surprising because the game is developed by Rocksteady Studios, the same studio that developed the Batman: Arkham trilogy.
To add to the game’s disappointment, it has mixed reviews on Steam, coming directly from DC fans, where they voice their annoyance at the performance of the live service game not matching Batman: Arkham Universe. David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery has come forward to express the disappointing figures that the game has generated.
David Zaslav Criticizes Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Over Its Poor Performance
Rocksteady Studio’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was panned by fans and critics alike upon its release, the game has negative reviews, urging people to not waste their money on this product. To add to the frustration of fans, the game also has an extremely low player count on Steam.
This is extremely disappointing for the live-service game because prior to its release, the game was assumed to generate huge revenue, but it did the polar opposite, as the game led to a loss of $200 million. During the Q1 financial results via IGN, Warner Bros. Discovery stated that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has “generated significantly lower revenues” in the same three-month period as Hogwarts Legacy.
In a follow-up call reported by VGC, David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery openly criticized the game during the financial presentation as he stated how the game saw a fall in revenues compared to the previous year, calling the game’s release as “disappointing.”
He added,
“Warner Bros Discovery’s great storytelling IP, including Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Superman and many other parts of the DC Universe are largely underused. We are hard at work fixing that. It’s a core value and a key advantage for us. We have the characters and the stories people love and yearn for everywhere in the world, in every language.”
However, he does not forget the fact that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was their key video game release this year, which “has fallen short of our expectations.” He said,
“This year, Suicide Squad, one of our key video game releases in 2024, has fallen short of our expectations since its release earlier in the quarter,” he noted at the time, “setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1.”
Indeed, the game looked rock solid prior to its release but getting compared with other games, led to its failure as games like Hogwarts Legacy are quite different from the live-service game. As a result, DC fans voiced their frustration on social media for creating a multiplayer game that none of them asked for.
DC Fans Show Their Support to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League on Social Media
David Zaslav’s comments about the game’s disappointing release made sense because getting compared to other games would ruin its opportunity to grow. DC fans voice out their disappointment and frustration with the game’s poor performance and how this would reflect badly on Rocksteady Studios, who gave their all in producing a game that was not asked by them.
The fans tweeted on X,
Honestly good, glad it failed. We don’t want live service games filled with FOMO and micro transactions. Just give us a good single player game that we can choose to play multiplayer in. Nobody always wants to play online with people.
— FireFoxKaz (@KazHeatCulture) May 9, 2024
The sad reality is that they'll blame the studio for the game's performance rather than their decision to push a live service game that next to no-one wanted over a more traditional Arkham single-player experience.
— Tharaxis (@tharaxis) May 9, 2024
It’s crazy how everyone saw this being a failure both from a gameplay perspective and a live service perspective, everyone was vocal about it, Warner Bros. acknowledged it.. and yet, they still pushed forward.
— ncbjd (@ncbjd) May 9, 2024
Warners bros been taking Ls since Mortal Kombat 1
— Uhurubeast (@QueensMWDT) May 9, 2024
I lost interest as soon as it was revealed to be a live service game.
— Slumpy_Azul ＜(´⌯ ̫⌯`)＞ (@Slumpy_Azul) May 9, 2024
The game’s failure was inevitable because developing a live service that was not asked by its fandom did not go well with them. Moreover, poor and buggy gameplay added to its problem, and a majority of the players have been complaining about the same.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League can be downloaded via Steam.
