Two developers who worked on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League have given a transparent account of their experience working on the game.
In a new interview with Bloomberg, two former Rocksteady Studio employees spoke out about the experience of working on the ill-fated Suicide Squad game. Designer Johnny Armstrong noted that the team was excited to take a move on from Batman after doing three back-to-back Arkham games but, once they started working on Suicide Squad, things started to change. Warner Bros. wanted a live-service game, and that was unlike anything the studio had ever done before.
Axel Rydby, who became the game's director in 2022, noted that the prolonged development meant there was more pressure on the live-service side of the project. With seven years of production, Warner Bros. was looking to find ways to recoup its investment and began pressuring the team to maximize replayability and player engagement.
“That’s when I started feeling like I wasn’t making games anymore,” he said. “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.”
Armstrong echoed similar feelings, noting that he grew disillusioned by the industry after working on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
“I felt everything drained from me,” Armstrong said. “I said, ‘I can’t do this again. I don’t know if I’m done with the industry, but I’m done.’ I could feel myself coming apart at the seams.”
The two left Rocksteady and have since moved on to find something that brings back their creative spark. They recently launched a Kickstarter for their new RPG deckbuilder, Secret of Circadia, and are hoping to pull in $11,000 from backers to bring it all to life.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was considered a pretty big fall from grace for Rocksteady after its beloved Arkham games but, hopefully, it also sent a message to Warner Bros. about the kinds of games it should be making. We're not quite sure what Rocksteady is working on right now, but rumors suggest it is returning to Batman with its next project.
However, many of the key creatives that brought the Arkham series to life have since left the studio. Of course, Rocksteady still retains a lot of talented folks, but the next game will almost certainly be different compared to a game like Arkham Knight.
Cade Onder is a freelancer for IGN's news team. He covers all things entertainment, including gaming, film, and more. You can find him on Twitter @Cade_Onder.