Rocksteady reportedly hit by layoffs following poor Suicide Squad sales

We’re truly living in uncertain times when it comes to industry jobs and sadly, Rocksteady appears to have been the latest victim in a round of layoffs. The studio itself recently brought us Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, which may be partly responsible for the layoffs.

The report comes from Eurogamer, with some unnamed staff members from the studio’s QA team in particular noting a series of redundancies. The department is said to have been “cut in half over the past month,” though losses within the company may have affected other teams as well.

One member of staff has apparently spoken out on social media about how they were laid off from Rocksteady while on paternity leave. At the time of writing, publisher Warner Bros. has yet to comment on these reports.

Kill the studios, it seems

In a classic case of cause-and-effect, it appears as though the poor sales of Suicide Squad has been cited as one of the reasons for the studio “restructuring.” Rocksteady senior management has acknowledged that product quality will now suffer as a result, per Eurogamer’s report.

Perhaps many won’t be surprised by this revelation. Kill the Justice League was not exactly welcomed with open arms by the community. Currently, the game is showing as “Mixed” for all reviews and “Mostly Negative” for recent ones over on Steam.

However, if all this is true, it’s still a sad time to be working in the games industry at the moment. We’ve seen thousands of developers lose their jobs over the past year or so, as well as entire studios being shuttered. There doesn’t appear to be light at the end of the tunnel for job security in gaming, at the moment.