Tag: suicide squad kill the justice league

WB Puts Faith in Live Service Model Despite Suicide Squad’s Failure, Hints Shift Away From Triple-A Games

Warner Bros. Games remains undeterred by the sub-par critical and commercial performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and plans to further lean into the live service model for its games going forward. J.B. Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games at Warner Bros. Discovery, laid out the company’s games strategy at a recent Morgan Stanley speaking event, reiterating the studio’s intentions to invest more in ‘games as a service’ model, free-to-play games and mobile titles, and expressing doubts about the “volatile” business of bespoke triple-A games on consoles.

Speaking at Morgan Stanley’s recent Technology Media and Telecom Conference, Perette reiterated Warner Bros.’ commitment to transform its biggest franchises into live service games and suggested a strategic shift away from triple-A releases.

“The challenge we’ve had is that our business, historically, has been very triple-A console-based. That’s a great business when you have a hit like Harry Potter (Hogwarts Legacy), it makes the year look amazing. And then, when you don’t have a release, or, unfortunately, we also have disappointments — we just released Suicide Squad this quarter, which was not as strong — it just makes it very volatile,” the executive said.

Perrette said that existing Warner Bros. franchises like Mortal Kombat, Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and DC presented the studio with an opportunity to expand its offerings beyond the console space. “We think there’s an opportunity to take those four franchises and develop a much more holistic approach, particularly around expanding into the mobile and multi-platform free to play space, which can give us a much better and more consistent set of revenue,” he said. The executive confirmed that WB Games will be launching several free-to-play games on mobile later this year.

Despite the massive success of last year’s Hogwarts Legacy, WB Games seem to have less faith in triple-A console releases, owing to long development cycles and high development costs. A live service model, on the other hand, can offer continued engagement and generate revenue more consistently, the studio believes. Perette said that Warner Bros. will look to expand its existing games around the live service model and suggested that a Hogwarts Legacy sequel could perhaps offer the same. “Rather than just launching a one-and-done console game, how do we develop a game around, for example Hogwarts Legacy or Harry Potter, that is a live service, where people can continue to live and work and build and play in that world on an ongoing basis?” he said.

Warner Bros. had announced its strategy to veer into the live service space at an earnings call last year in November. WB CEO David Zaslav had said that the company planned to transform its biggest video game franchises into long-term products. “Ultimately we want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels,” Zaslav had said at the time.

The studio also seems unfazed by the failure of its latest triple-A release, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which follows a live service looter shooter model. The game, which released last month on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X, reportedly fell short of Warner Bros. expectations. At the time of writing, the third-person shooter has 208 players online on Steam, with all-time peak player count of just over 13,000. In our own 6/10 review for the game, we said Kill the Justice League was severely held back by its live service model, with “baffling design choices, mundane mission structure, and unclear identity” working against the game’s strengths.

The games as a service model also seems to have reached a point of saturation, with several titles competing to retain player engagement. While popular games like Fortnite and Call of Duty have done well, newer releases have struggled to adapt the model successfully. Heavily-monetised live service titles also seem to have lost favour among gamers themselves.

Hogwarts Legacy, a single-player console release with no microtransactions and live service elements, became the best-selling game last year, selling over 22 million copies.

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Will Add the Joker as a Playable Character via Free Post-Launch DLC

As Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League nears its launch, developer Rocksteady has confirmed that the game’s post-launch DLC will bring iconic DC villain Joker as a playable character. The studio made the announcement Monday in the third episode of its Suicide Squad Insider developer diary series, detailing its plans for delivering free post-launch seasonal content to players who buy the game, multiversal concepts and a few multiplayer features that will be present at launch. According to Rocksteady, each post-launch season will feature two episodes and will follow the theme of a DC villain, bringing new ways to play. The new announcement follows the developers teasing hundreds of character builds and distinct loadouts earlier this month.

In the Suicide Squad Insider episode titled “Introducing Elseworlds,” Rocksteady laid out its plans for alternate universes in the game, each of them bringing unique DC characters to the mix. With the launch of the first season of post-game content in March, players will be able to unlock the Joker as a playable character for their squads, Rocksteady confirmed. The video shows off a younger version of the Clown Prince of Crime from an alternate universe — Elseworld, as Rocksteady calls it. Bear in mind that the Joker in Rocksteady’s Arkham series of games died in Batman: Arkham City. “He (Joker) was part of the Suicide Squad in the Elseworld that he’s from,” associate design director at the studio Johnny Armstrong explained in the video.

While the Elseworld Joker retains the look and mannerism we’ve come to expect from the iconic villain — the purple suit, the green hair and face makeup and a penchant for chaos, he will have to figure out his place in a new universe, Rocksteady said. The younger, more inexperienced Joker will, however, come with his own unique combat and traversal gameplay systems and distinct weapons to boot. Joker’s new traversal mechanics are based around a rocket-power umbrella, which can be used to propel the DC villain up in the air and glide around. Joker’s umbrella can also be flipped down to grind along buildings like a skateboard and knock away enemies in your path.

From the Joker gameplay footage shown in the video, the villain can be seen gliding around the map with his umbrella and dispatching enemies with glee using melee weapons and firearms. Joker will be the first of a series of DC villain recruits that players will be able to unlock as part of post-launch seasonal content. Rocksteady said it intends to build a library of playable DC characters over time, each with their unique move sets for combat and traversal.

Along with new characters, post-launch content also promises to bring new environments, challenges, missions, gear and more, all at no extra cost to players who have purchased the main game. Rocksteady also confirmed that post-launch playable content will not be locked behind a Battle Pass system and will be directly delivered into the game with the launch of a new season. In addition to detailing their seasonal content plans in their latest video, Rocksteady also provided details on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s multiplayer features like squad-based leaderboards and emotes. Additionally, the developers showed off an outfit customisation system for the squad members.

While Suicide Squad developers have promised a ton of free post-launch content to keep players engaged, the studio, which was earlier known for narrative-focussed single player titles in the Arkham series, and publishers Warner Bros. have attracted criticism over the live service direction of their upcoming DC game. The gameplay reveal for the title back in February 2023 was met with fan backlash over its looter shooter leanings.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League puts players in the shoes of four DC supervillains — Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark, allowing players to play solo or up to four-player co-op and take on brainwashed and rogue members of the Justice League. The game releases February 2 across PC, PS5 and Xbox Series S/X.

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Warner Bros. Says It Will Transform Its Biggest Franchises Into Live Service Games

Warner Bros. will be heavily veering into a live service model for its future games. During its latest Q3 earnings call, CEO David Zaslav confirmed that the company plans to transform its biggest video game franchises into long-term products, bolstered by regular content drops and heavy monetisation. In recent years, gamers have developed a distaste for such money-hungry practices, which often lock out content behind some form of paywall or a battle pass, instead of providing a complete game at launch. The idea is for players to keep playing WB-published games for months, instead of having AAA developers put out a new game every three to four years — which is the general cycle.

“Ultimately we want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels,” Zaslav said during the call. “We are currently under scale and see significant opportunity to generate greater post-purchase revenue.” It’s an ironic statement considering the backlash Rocksteady Studios received when it debuted the gameplay trailer for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, following which the game was delayed. While the studio claimed that it needed more time to ensure polish at launch, several reports suggested that it was being pushed into next year due to the inclusion of live-service elements. The developer was known for creating standalone, single-player Batman experiences through its Arkham series of games, but its latest title took a complete detour indicating heavy grinding for loot and gear, alongside purchasable cosmetic items.

What’s worse is that while the entire main cast of the Suicide Squad game — Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark — have unique abilities, by default, they are all armed with firearms and seem to play the same. The gameplay loop includes hunting down mobs and bosses in repeated succession, taking a generic looter-shooter approach. In fact, Turtle Rock Studios’ Back 4 Blood also followed a similar always-online games-as-a-service pattern but eventually ran out of content. Gotham Knights was always marketed as a single-player/ co-op story game, but take one look at its menu and run around town beating up thugs, and you’ll immediately realise that the originally laid groundwork for progression was for a live-service game. It seems like developer WB Games Montréal noticed how poorly Square Enix’s Avengers game fared and decided to change plans midway through. And let’s not forget Middle-earth: Shadow of War, whose microtransactions were entirely removed following player feedback.

The aforementioned games were all published by Warner Bros. and therefore, should serve as a cautionary tale. However, CEO Zaslav is doubling down on these practices, despite noting how well Hogwarts Legacy performed from a sales and critical perspective — 700 million collective hours played till date. Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat 1, which featured some aggressive microtransactions, sold 3 million copies. The executive appears to be relying on these success stories to chart a new course for its video games division, instead of looking at failures and understanding why it failed. Developers who create single-player games are not the same as those adept in multiplayer/ live-service experiences, and vice versa.

Earlier this year, WB launched the beta version of MultiVersus, a free-to-play crossover fighting game that brought in characters from various self-owned properties like Game of Thrones, Batman, Superman, and more. It also featured a battle pass for cosmetic items. The game’s servers were shut down in June due to a diminishing player count. It is slated to launch sometime in 2024, but we’ll have to wait and see if it materialises.

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Delayed to February 2024

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has been delayed yet again. In a tweet, developer Rocksteady Studios confirmed that its upcoming DC Comics looter-shooter has been pushed to a February 2, 2024 release date. Reports from last month suggested that the game was being delayed until later this year, following fan backlash from a PlayStation State of Play event for the game, showcasing detailed gameplay and a live service model. But it seems like the team needs a lot more time to ensure a polished experience at launch. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was originally slated for a May 26 release and will now arrive nine months later — which at first might seem like a long time for polish, but as per Bloomberg games reporter Jason Schreier, it’s “actually normal these days.”

“We have made the tough but necessary decision to take the time needed to work on getting the game to be the best quality experience for players,” the statement from Rocksteady Studios reads. “Thank you to our amazing community for the continued support, patience, and understanding.” The developer added that it’s got much more to share in the coming months, but as mentioned before, there won’t be any changes to the core mechanics. For the uninitiated, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League showcased some raw gameplay last month, featuring elements that aligned with a live service game and a battle pass system, which according to the studio, will only unlock cosmetic items. Since the game has you play as members of Task Force X — Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark — it also felt odd that they were all equally equipped with guns, instead of having unique kits and movesets.

The generally negative reception stems from the outdated design philosophy and Rocksteady’s history, which is known for making single-player grounded narratives based on Batman’s mythos. The Suicide Squad game will instead focus on four-player co-op — akin to Marvel’s Avengers — albeit a solo mode is included as well, where your remaining squad gets taken control of by bots. It was previously confirmed that none of these mechanics will change and that the additional time will be used for bug fixing and optimisation. “Nine months is not enough time to completely change the nature of a game,” games reporter Schreier tweeted. “Folks are surprised a dev would take nine extra months to polish a game, but that’s actually normal these days. (Nine years between games: less normal.)” The latter is referring to Rocksteady’s development cycle — their last project was Batman: Arkham Knight, released in 2015.

Schreier also notes that Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 releasing in September could also have been a factor for this delay, so as to not risk direct competition. The release window for the PS5-exclusive was never officially confirmed by Insomniac Games, but Tony Todd, the Venom voice actor on the title, revealed it last month, via Twitter. Server stability on the Suicide Squad game should also be taken into account since co-op is a key component and you’d also require a continuous internet connection. Meaning, even if you choose to play by yourself, the game simply will not launch unless it detects an internet connection.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will now release February 2, 2024, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Delayed Once Again After Fan Backlash: Report

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has reportedly been delayed again. As per Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier, WB Games has pushed its upcoming DC Comics looter-shooter out of its May 26 launch date to sometime “later this year.” The news comes after a recent PlayStation showcase of the title, which was received poorly by fans, due to developer Rocksteady Studios’ pivot to a live-service model, rather than the single-player Batman storylines they’re known for. However, Schreier’s source confirmed that the delay has to do with fixing bugs and ensuring a polish at launch, and that the fan backlash won’t affect the core gameplay.

For what it’s worth, this reported delay like this is good for Rocksteady’s latest, which was on track to compete against behemoths like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (May 12), Street Fighter 6 (June 2), and Diablo IV (June 6). The delay rids Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League of any major competition, and lets it shine in a safer spot. The game was initially set for release last year but got delayed for optimisation reasons. The State of Play presentation from last month confirmed suspicions and leaks, which suggested that the game featured some kind of a battle pass system and menu elements that aligned with a live-service title. All unlocks will be purely cosmetic and Rocksteady promises to continue supporting the game long after launch by introducing new playable characters, missions, and weapons. The studio claims that the new content will be available at no extra cost. There are no loot boxes either.

In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, you pick from four key Task Force X characters — Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, Harley Quinn, and King Shark — and set off on a mission to thwart the Justice League members who have succumbed to Brainiac’s mind control. While a four-player co-op system is the focus, the game can be played in solo mode as well, while the remaining squad is taken over by AI/ bots. However, the game’s FAQ page confirmed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will require a continuously running internet connection. This means, even if you choose to play by yourself, the game simply won’t launch unless it detects an internet connection. It does appear strong on the co-op front though, even offering support for full cross-platform at launch. While a PS Plus or Xbox Live Gold membership isn’t needed to run the game on console, it will be required for online co-op.

For the uninitiated, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is set within the Arkhamverse, unlike another WB Games-published co-op title Gotham Knights, which dropped last year. In addition to the core content, that game heavily lacked in terms of optimisation, causing performance issues on PC while the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X versions were locked at 30fps.

That said, WB Games’ first title of 2023, Hogwarts Legacy has been a massive success, selling over 12 million copies within the first two weeks of launch. An impressive milestone, considering the amount of online discourse it generated in regard to J.K. Rowling’s controversial views. The studio Avalanche Software is currently hard at work on the old-gen PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game, which were recently delayed to May 5.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is slated for release later this year on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.

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