Two former developers from Rocksteady Studios have spoken out about the challenging production of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The game, which reportedly resulted in a $200 million loss for Warner Bros. following its launch, saw its development shift focus from creative vision to monetization strategies, according to an interview with Bloomberg.
Axel Rydby, the game's top designer, explained that as development progressed, the emphasis increasingly moved towards making the looter shooter feel replayable and identifying methods for extracting further revenue from players. He recalled that significant meetings with Warner Bros. began to prioritize what would aid monetization over what would be creatively compelling. "That’s when I started feeling like I wasn’t making games anymore," Rydby stated. "I was following a spreadsheet, some elusive marketing-analysis spreadsheet that no one could present clearly. I kind of felt like this isn’t the gaming industry I wanted to work in."
Johnny Armstrong, an associate design director on Suicide Squad who had been with Rocksteady since 2010, cited overconfidence stemming from the studio's success with the Batman: Arkham series as a contributing factor to the pivot to live-service. This genre, he noted, has substantially different requirements compared to the bespoke narrative and level design of the studio's previous acclaimed titles. The sheer scale of Suicide Squad made testing difficult, and a reliance on minor, repeated delays instead of more strategic planning hindered the implementation of necessary deeper improvements.
"We put all these hours in, but it didn’t feel like it was tangibly getting better," Armstrong told Bloomberg. "Everyone felt like they were having to run to stand still."
Both Rydby and Armstrong are now working on a new indie project called Secret of Circadia, a deckbuilding RPG. The game is described as an "open love letter to the indie gaming industry" from developers who grew weary of corporate politics and financial pressures impeding the passion for game creation. The project is seeking over $11,000 on Kickstarter and includes an explicit anti-AI disclaimer.
Rydby expressed broader concerns about the industry's direction, telling Bloomberg, "I think as an industry we are severely losing our way. It used to be passion projects that you loved and hoped other people loved too. When they did, it was such an amazing feeling. It became less and less of that. It became: ‘Let’s hope it sells. Let’s hope we get money from it.’"