Suicide Squad
There have been approximately zero good headlines about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League since launch, but now Rocksteady and WB are proving me wrong in at least one significant way.
I have previously speculated that the game was doing so poorly it would be shuttered before it got all the way through its year 1 roadmap. But as it turns out, the plan is to do just that…no matter what.
In an interview with IGN, WB said that Suicide Squad will “see out [the game’s] first year of support. Though after that? We are not yet discussing anything that is not announced.”
The first year of content will contain three more seasons, joining the two episodes of the Joker season that just launched. The game is gearing up for the release of Mrs. Freeze, a gender-flipped, alt-universe version of the famed Batman villain who will reportedly surf around the city with ice powers. Early looks at the character have leaked which fans have been less than thrilled by.
Season 3 will star Zoe Lawton, Deadshot’s daughter and certainly not a major character in DC or even Suicide Squad lore, so it’s hard to know how much of a draw she’d be. Rather, the game’s few remaining players are instead looking forward to season 4’s release of Deathstroke, who is a major villain and seems like he’d be awesome to play as. In theory, though Suicide Squad characters share 80% of their character kits and gear, one of the game’s major problems.
Suicide Squad
One issue with the way this year of content was structured is that with so few players left, many will not see the continuation of the main game’s storyline that shows that (spoilers) actually, the Justice League is not dead. The storyline is freeing/reviving the “dead” members of the Justice League which will eventually include the infamously executed Batman.
But again, barely anyone will be around to experience this. Suicide Squad peaked at half of Avengers’ concurrent players on Steam at launch. The Joker season was about 25% of that. Then, episode 2 was about 20% of that, with a high of just 560 players showing up for Episode 2 of the season. I’d be amazed if 1,000-1,500 players were there for the release of Mrs. Freeze. Also, with delays, finishing this year of content will likely take more than a year. And no, I absolutely do not think that with $200 million reportedly already lost on this game, it will see a year 2. No chance.
However, the good news for Rocksteady is that this failure does not seem like it will come with a shutdown or mass layoffs. WB Games previously said they were already understaffed so layoffs don’t make sense, and reports are Rocksteady devs may be pitching in to help make a Director’s Cut of the megahit Hogwart’s Legacy.
As for me, one of the biggest “I’ll still give it a chance” journalists for the game, I think I’m just out. I have too many other games to play and it’s not worth continuing to cover for the few hundred players that may still be around. I did try, I really did, but the Joker season did not impress me and I have even less desire to play as Mrs. Freeze and Zoe Lawton after this. Maybe I’ll come back in 6-8 months for Deathstroke, but I don’t know.
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