Rocksteady reportedly hit by layoffs after poor sales of Suicide Squad

We are living in truly uncertain times when it comes to jobs in the industry and unfortunately Rocksteady seems to be the latest victim in a round of layoffs. The studio itself recently brought us Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice Leaguewhich may be partly responsible for the layoffs.

The report comes from Eurogamer, with several anonymous members of the studio’s QA team specifically reporting a series of layoffs. The department is said to have “halved in size over the past month”, though losses within the company may have hit other teams as well.

An employee has apparently spoken out on social media about how they were fired 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 that poor sales of Suicide Squad is cited as one of the reasons for the studio’s “restructuring.” According to the Eurogamer report, Rocksteady’s senior management has acknowledged that product quality will now suffer as a result.

Perhaps this revelation will not surprise many. End the Justice League was not exactly received with open arms by the community. Currently, the game is listed as “Mixed” for all reviews and “Mostly Negative” for recent reviews on Steam.

If all of this is true, it’s still a sad time to be in the gaming industry. We’ve seen thousands of developers lose their jobs and entire studios close over the past year. There doesn’t seem to be any light at the end of the tunnel for job security in the gaming industry right now.