WB Games Still in the Live-Service Game, Despite Suicide Squad Failure

News, Suicide squad, WB Games

DC and gaming fans-alike awaiting a new Batman game from WB games, prepare yourself. Unfortunately, despite the poor performance of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League critically and commercially, it sounds like Warner Bros. Games are still in the business of live-service games.

Earlier this year, the publisher cancelled big projects including Wonder Woman, and shut down several studios: Monolith Productions, known for the Middle Earth: Shadow of War and F.E.A.R. games; Player First Games, creators of the now offline MutliVersus; and Warner Bros. Games San Diego.

Many of the closures and job layoffs were in the wake of the terrible performance of Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League, Rocksteady's early-2024 release which spent many years in production and went through a well-documented turbulent development.

Despite only launching in February of last year as a live-service title, the game's life cycle swiftly came to its end in less than 12 months. In December last year, WB announced that Season 4 would be the games last.

Deathstroke was Suicide Squad’s final season addition

However, keen to still explore options in the over saturated live-service games market, WB are now recruiting for an Executive Producer who will "lead the development of a high-quality AAA game based on one of the iconic IPs from the vast Warner Bros. and DC Comics catalog." Though that all sounds promising, another line in the JD says the post-holder will also "Oversee post-launch content and live service strategy, ensuring ongoing player engagement."

The role requires someone who has a "Deep understanding of the full game development lifecycle, including live services."

Whilst its understandable that developers want to eat as big of a slice of the live-service pie as possible, trying to pry players away from titles they're already invested in is an increasingly difficult challenge for developers. In the US earlier this year, over 40% of gaming time was spent on only 10 titles, including household names like Fortnite, Call of Duty and other juggernauts.

The light that WB Games have likely seen is the success of Marvel Rivals which we reviewed well here at GSC, a title that reached 10m players in only 72 hours and continues to retain a solid playerbase.

So whether we see a multiplayer combative experience, an MMO, or another type of live-service DC universe game remains to be seen. But for those of us yearning for another trip to Gotham City, it sounds like we might be waiting quite a bit longer.

Did you enjoy Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League despite its lacklustre reception? What's your thoughts on the news that WB Games are looking into a new live-service game? Let us know in the comments below and stick with GSC for all your gaming news.