Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League - What Happened?

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[Applause]

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hello and welcome to another episode of

what happened where I am dispensing with

the usual intro due to the remote

control device in the back of my skull

that will go off if I take too long

thanks Waller so do let me get straight

to it Warner Brothers games and

Rocksteady studi latest effort is a

title that from the time of its

announcement to its eventual release

wasn't exactly desired by a hefty chunk

of Batman fans with one of the main

reasons being it no it's not a Batman

game but for a multitude of reasons that

we'll be getting into WB went forward

with the squad anyhow in fact they tried

several times to go forward with the

idea of a violent Cooperative super

villain Team game over the course of 14

years and nothing not the please of fans

nor multiple delays snags problems and

sudden departures was ever going to

change that so grab your mallets

boomerangs various laser firing

artillery and tons of battle pass

exclusive gear as I answer the question

what happened to Suicide Squad kill the

Justice League

I can tell you this for free there's a

lot of backstory to this one like an

obscene amount of backstory so let's

just dive bomb right into it after

rocksteady's Arkham Knight released back

in 2015 which psychic damage was almost

a decade ago fans started to wonder what

was taking so long for the highly

respected London based Studio to

announce their next big project some of

you out there however may remember they

were busy for a another year or so

developing the unmemorable Batman Arkham

VR this is important to our story

because it meant that wb's plans to push

the suicide squad had to fall to someone

else at least at that time that someone

else would be WB Games moral who are

best known as the developers of the

redheaded stepchild of the Arkham verse

Arkham Origins it it's literally in its

name to this day I don't know why this

prequel is intentionally ignored and

never included in remasters or

re-releases but yeah it is what it is I

guess anyway once WB Montreal completed

Origins and its DLC their main staff

moved on to their next unannounced

project which then caused outside of

some support work for other WB owned

Studios a huge gap in their work history

this unannounced project was in fact a

Suicide Squad game which well yeah was

never made official official has had

enough evidence linked to it over the

years to safely confirm there was of

course Warner Brothers push to start

developing a film to hopefully make this

team of unbalanced nerell as a household

name then there was the fact that both

Arkham Origins and its companion game

Blackgate implied that the squad were

going to be throwing their uh Kookie

deranged hats into the video game ring

although these hints would feature some

characters that wouldn't actually appear

in the release product or at least not

yet maybe I don't know but honestly

before all that I I mean that's not even

where all this technically begins

because even though WB Montreal started

working on suicide squad in Earnest in

late 2013 maybe early 2014 to coincide

with the in development movie the

origins of the game start all the way

back to

2010 yeah you heard that right former DC

entertainment Chief creative Officer

Jeff Johns said in a San Diego ComicCon

panel that a hardcore violent Suicide

Squad video game was in development but

provided no details other than that now

WB Montreal was only just founded in

2010 so it might be that the project

actually started up at a completely

different Studio or it had just kicked

off P production in Montreal by a much

smaller team while the majority of the

workforce focused on Arkham Origins if I

was a betting Skeleton Man I think it's

more likely the latter because Mr John's

dropped more hints that such a game was

still in development in 2012 which moves

it closer to when WB Montreal would be

available but we can't be absolutely

sure I did reach out to two former staff

members who were at the studio during

that relevant time period but their only

comment was sadly no comment and get

used to that by the way and really

despite the facts that we do have I

wouldn't be surprised if there was a

third studio in the mix at some point I

mean hell even in 2024 we just found out

that monolith had been working on an

open world Nolan verse game that

featured the first implementation of

their Nemesis system so yeah crazier

[ __ ] has happened and crazier [ __ ] will

indeed

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continue what we do know for sure is

that WB Montreal's main team moved on to

Suicide Squad but like most AAA Studios

they also had another smaller team doing

pre-production on their next project

that being a Batman title starring Damen

Wayne and a crumbling dystopian Gotham

City which we'll get to in a bit it's

now roughly 2016 and David 's cinematic

adaptation of The Suicide Squad relased

to a very divisive I.E negative critical

backlash due to a Multiverse of reasons

that it actually might need its own what

happen story someday although I really

don't want to anyway once the Fallout

from the film started leveling off

reports began popping up that WB tongue

Cluckers and beard Strokers had decided

to Deb at the bomb that was lodged deep

within their Montreal Studio on Al

living their would be team of villains

now this cancellation might have had

something to do with the primarily

negative reception to the film or any

number of other outside factors but the

only confirmed one was what various

Outlets reported on which was that WB

execs were not impressed with what the

Montreal team had produced and

apparently that was enough to ax the

whole thing

this is where we finally make the

connection back to Rock Steady As The

Suicide Squad concept was then shifted

over to them which we'll get to in a

second I swear but I'd be remiss if I

didn't at least finish up with WB

Montreal with their main in development

project now snatched away they then

shifted to their secondary one the AFF

forementioned Damian Wayne concept which

was known under the temp working title

of project Sabbath somewhat ironically

it was reported along with a whole bunch

of other stuff that it was going to use

the Nemesis system that monolith had

repurposed from their cancell Batman

game and into Shadow of Mordor yo big

UPS to my boy garl the drunk I love you

baby it was in 2019 however that this

information along with the general plot

cast of characters and a significant

amount of concept art mysteriously

leaked onto the internet but by the time

it had Sabbath was already long dead it

seems sometime between 2016 and 2018

Damian Wayne's cape and cowl were ripped

away and perhaps incorporating the Co-op

multiplayer work they had started with

Suicide Squad Sabbath turned into what

we know today as Gotham Knights it's

very common for Studios to not just

throw away good designs and code and

instead find ways to repurpose them for

other projects and that's really likely

what happened here although I can't 100%

confirm it again the former staff

members I reached out to remain tight

lipped on this but if you look at the

Timeline well it really works out

especially when you consider when Gotham

knights was publicly revealed related to

this earlier this year the legendary

Josh Keaton wow said in a live stream he

had done several recording sessions as

Damen Wayne which shows just how far

along the game really was was he also

revealed it was not an Arkham verse

title and theorized that the reason the

entire project fell apart and was

cancelled was because of the leaks now

no disrespect to the man but that

doesn't really make sense logistically

because the leaks only happened in 2019

and Gotham knights was unveiled in 2020

so the cancellation or perhaps the

transition into a very different open

world Co-op game had to have happened

well before that it also doesn't make

sense from a financial standpoint cuz

why would a publisher just cancel a game

because some details of it got leaked

like games leak out all the time anyway

during all of this Rock Steady had their

own [ __ ] going on according to reports

they were working on a multiplayer

project that may or may not have been a

completely new all original Ip the other

thing they were working on according to

the internet at large was the fable

Superman game The Last son of Krypton

has had one of the worst streaks of

stinkers in video game history as pretty

much every solo game he's ever had isn't

really worth having and yeah I know this

sucks to say but I'm counting death and

returns in there too it's just it's just

disappointing you know just really

repetitive drawn out kind of boring and

the mechanic anyway the rumors of rock

steady working on a game starring The

Man of Steel wouldn't seem to die even

though they were just that rumors

according to a Bloomberg report from

earlier this year Rock said he basically

confirmed a soups game was never worked

on or ever even pitched so as far as I

can tell this was just a lot of Wishful

Whispers moving on their mysterious

multiplayer project seemed to go nowhere

or perhaps again the work done on it

might have been adapted to support the

suicide squad but I couldn't find

confirmation on that either remember the

no comment I got from the WB Montreal

employees well that goes doubly so with

most of the former Rock steadiers I also

contacted as you can imagine since kill

the Justice League is just a few months

old and WB being a pretty litigious and

let's be honest miserly company I didn't

expect many people willing to dish out

industry Secrets there was however one

anonymous source I spoke to that did

give me a shred of insight into Suicide

Squad once it had shifted over to rock

steady they revealed that the game's

development was put on pause while story

rewrites were happening in the

background which of course would have

slowed things down across several

disciplines while they weren't able to

provide details on what these story

changes were considering all we've

learned so far it could have been

literally anything if I was to Hazard a

guess though it may have been due to

complication surrounding the next

Suicide Squad film which went through

several writers and directors all

throughout 2016 to late 2018 which in

turn kept pushing back the release date

and could have possibly affected other

Suicide Squad projects my source also

cited to other things that may have

accounted for the multiple delays High

employee turnover and getting acclimated

to the games as a service development

pipeline my source wanted it to be noted

that this High turnover was not due to

dissatisfaction within rock steady but

rather the AAA Game Dev environment in

London which they described as very

competitive senior employees were often

getting headhunted and offered way more

money to join other Studios and while a

number of them would take up these deals

they would either get dissatisfied with

these new positions or suddenly be laid

off and return to Rocksteady once again

related to that Rocksteady upper

management also had to hire a consultant

with expertise in games as a service

development to evangelize the team and

get them educated on everything and

online action Co-op RPG had to offer as

at the time that's where the industry

looked like it was heading the only

other thing I can confidently put

forward though is that developing

Suicide Squad was undoubtedly a

technical nightmare as rock steady

talented as they may be hadn't really

tackled anything with the level of scope

and complexity that many modern online

games tend to to offer when they started

working on the Arkham Trilogy they

ramped up their development and ambition

in smooth and logical ways tightly

designed interconnected biomes with

clever and detailed level designs

expanding out into an open world that

was conservative in scope while still

offering plenty to do and explore and

finally adapting that City to support a

large vehicle for players to Traverse

the map while turning the graphical

Fidelity up to 12 so going from that to

having to design the very

architecturally different metropolis and

gameplay Loop that has to work with four

players killing dozens of enemies online

across multiple platforms as well as

stuffing as many different modifiers

stats weapons gear micro transactions

and DLC as the cackling corpse like WB

corporate Fat Cats wanted well I'm sure

it was a very stressful few years and

unfortunately all that effort and stress

would all be for not when Rock Steady

finally did announce kill the Justice

League at the August 2020 edition of

wb's short-lived DC fandom event there

was of course much grumbling from fans

it had been 6 years since there had been

a traditional singleplayer Batman game

and after the fandom event it seemed

like WB and its Associated Studios were

making anything but that this is because

they didn't announce one but two titles

that put a heavy fot focus on Co-op

multiplayer they're all about stats loot

season passes and not controlling Batman

now I know what some of you are going to

say why on Earth would they Greenlight

two of these things when the Square Enix

and Crystal Dynamics live service

Avengers game flopped so horribly well

time makes fools of us all because that

wasn't even out yet the fandom event was

held in August while Avengers failed to

assemble the following o October but

what about much later like when the

Avengers player count started to

suddenly dip well when your knee deep in

Triple A development and millions upon

millions of dollars and years upon years

of work are at stake when something gets

publicly announced in 99% of cases it's

far too late to Pivot or backpedal the

following has been said lots of times

and I'm going to say it again but when

something becomes hot like fortnite or

destiny lots of Publishers start rubbing

their hands together going oh this is

this is the new hot [ __ ] let let's do

that but given the prolonged nature of

video game development by the time they

actually release their version of that

popular thing it's far far too late and

they often end up failing in spectacular

and embarrassing ways Suicide Squad did

have one Saving Grace during its first

big reveal though and that was the fact

that its first trailer was all CGI and

bereft of any real gameplay so for a

sizable chunk of fans the benefit of the

doubt was being given sure this clearly

wasn't the shiny nextg Batman sequel

from a series that had sold over 30

million units worldwide but well it was

still rock steady and they had a proven

track record however that same track

record would be tarnished that same

month when a report began to circulate

that back in

2018 10 of rocksteady's 16 female

employees signed a letter of complaint

to the studio heads citing a toxic work

environment that fostered sexual

harassment demeaning comments and

various other forms of abuse this

scathing report would go on to reveal

that rock steady did very little to

reprimand or correct the behavior aside

from a single 1-hour seminar on proper

workplace etiquette once this story

broke out Rocksteady management did

confirm that the 2018 letter of

complaint had been filed

contrary to the new report said they did

take extensive measures to fix these

issues one female employee wound up

quitting the company altogether and

asked for Rocksteady management to

remove her name from the credits of

Suicide Squad as she no longer wanted to

be associated with this studio clearly

though things were not running all that

smoothly and this controversy wasn't

going to be the only one as it then

seemed to set off a chain reaction of NE

negative headlines massive delays fan

backlash and two high-profile and very

sudden

exits during the fandom event Suicide

Squad was given a loose 2022 launch

window but come March of 2022 they still

hadn't narrowed that down unfortunately

when Rock Steady did share news about

the release date they admitted it was

going to shift by a lot namely skipping

the entire year all together and moving

into another nebulous early

2023 the reason given of course was the

usual want to deliver the best quality

project thank you for your patience yada

yada yada and don't get me wrong that's

a good thing I mean I shudder to think

of the product that would have been

released if WB had insisted on a 2022

launch that wasn't however going to be

the only delay far from it just a few

months later at the 2022 Please wrap it

up Awards this early 2023 date then

shifted slightly again to Mid 2023 May

26 to be precise it would also include

the special mention that it would be

Kevin Conroy's last time portraying

Batman as he sadly passed away the month

earlier rip to a legend the bad [ __ ]

though really hit the fan during the

February 2023 state of play event or an

extended gameplay sequence was shown of

The Suicide Squad bouncing around

Metropolis talking in incessantly and

shooting guns and lasers at brightly

colored things during this long

presentation and the subsequent FAQ that

was posted online afterwards Rock Steady

confirmed the fears of many fans Suicide

Squad would need a constant internet

connection to play would have an

elaborate battle pass and would

consistently offer new downloadable gear

weapons costumes and characters on top

of that much like you guessed it The

Avengers game funnily enough around the

time this state of play aired online it

was announced that Avengers would no

longer be receiving any new content or

characters as Crystal Dynamics was now

moving on to other projects yeah not at

all a red flag is it WB the response to

this new Gameplay trailer and all that

horrible stuff I mentioned didn't go

down well I was met with plenty of

vitriol from many fans who just wanted a

good narrative-based singleplayer

superhero game something that outside of

a few key examples seem to be getting

rarer and rarer now at the time this

trailer aired kill the Justice League

was still slotted in as a May 2023

release so it took many by surprise that

just one month before that rock steady

decided to pump the brakes and announce

another massive delay this time to

February 2nd

2024 just going by the dozens of other

examples we've seen in the past this was

in all likelihood a delay designed to

fix massive amounts of bugs and

technical issues that the team just

weren't able to crack in time because

despite the many complaints fans lobbied

at the state of play reveal nothing

about kill the Justice League's in-game

economy or gameplay style would wind up

changing the official reason for this

next Mammoth delay was pretty much the

same one they said last time 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 thank you for our

amazing Community for the continued

support Pat I and understanding there is

much more to share in the months ahead

and we look forward to seeing you in

Metropolis next year now some fans the

most sweet innocent and naive ones mind

you took this delay as a good sign Rock

Steady had to know players were not

happy about well a lot of stuff so there

was some hope that this delay was not

only for polishing but by taking

consumer feedback into consideration and

an extensive bout of retooling but as I

outlined earlier this just wasn't going

to be the reality there was no way with

WB at the helm at least that suicide

squad's entire in-game economy SL scam

was going to be redesigned and there was

even more no way that the game playay or

mechanics would change either as it was

just simply too late for that remember

the game was nearing 2 years behind

schedule already and honestly in my

opinion the only reason it wasn't

squirted out sooner at wb's insistence

was probably rocksteady's Pedic agree

and push back from its Founders well

I've covered plenty of stories here on

what happened where a publisher does

take a step back looks at a near

completed project and says uh no yeah

this this isn't working let's just cut

our losses before we lose even more

money and cancel the whole damn thing

now while WB Discovery movie division

seems to be all about that shitty life

it's slightly different for video games

nowadays years upon years of more work

and in many cases way more money gets

poured into AAA gaming over say a movie

depending on its scope but the ceiling

for profits can sometimes be even higher

also you'll notice that most of the near

finish games I've covered before were

from earlier Generations where budgets

were significantly smaller than they are

today so in summary I guess by this

point after so many false starts and

cancelled pitches by multiple Studios

dating back to 2010 uh shifting over to

their Premier developer in full

production for at least 5 years and

promoted for two of them there was no

way WB was going to cancel or delay

Suicide Squad any longer the hype

machine had to start spinning but it was

going to be and stay a very uphill

battle quite frankly the Press did not

sugarcoat this situation as online

previews of Suicide Squad from an event

in January 2024 just a few weeks away

from launch were largely negative as

many outlets cited uncertainty about

pretty much everything journalists and

reviewers took issue with the now

familiar grindy nature of the gameplay

the messy UI the technical performance

just uh you know previews tend to be

pretty optimistic at the very least but

this time no one was pulling their

punches and you know it has to be said

that while a good portion of this

negativity was due to the game itself

burnout from this particular subgenre

must have been a Factor too as fans and

journalists have experienced the same

type of gameplay Loop pretty regularly

for the last few years including you

know superhero based ones and with all

the big hot hardcore gaming season

titles I've covered here on what

happened I've never seen the usually

glowing early previews be less than

glowing at least CD project red had the

foresite to only allow coverage of the

PC version of cyberpunk and Rockstar

Allowed no previews at all of the GTA

definitive collection [ __ ] show so

really the numbers did not lie and they

spelled disaster for rock steady and

Warner Brothers at Sac release

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day and so a disaster it indeed was

suicide squad's launch was played with a

Litany of problems bugs and backlash as

a part of the deluxe edition players

were given 72 hours of early access to

the game but because of a bizarre issue

that marked players progress as 100%

complete before even booting it up

servers had to be taken down for

maintenance to fix the Boo Boo and since

it's an online only game no one was able

to play it during that downtime which as

you can imagine made many gamers happy

those affected were given a a 2,000

Luther bucks which equated to around $20

of real world currencies so uh yeah not

off to a good start of course the game's

online connectivity in general was also

a big problem as even weeks after launch

roxet were still trying to crack down on

issues that were causing players to

desync or get booted from a session Al

together subsequent patches actually

made things worse for some players as

they weren't able to properly level

their characters or gear While others

would run into the infamous loading

Metropolis bug which wouldn't let

players progress at all because of all

of this the community for the game even

some of its stous and most Brave

Defenders started turning against it

sting immense dissatisfaction with all

these bugs the prospect of having to

kill and not play as some of their

favorite Heroes but of course the

monetization model as well it's bad

enough when the fully priced game you

paid for lacks basic functionality it's

another thing when that fully priced

game you paid for that's not working is

also constantly trying to incentivize

you to spend your money it should be no

surprise then that kill the Justice

League's aggregate review scores placed

it lower than both Avengers and Gotham

Knights and as the issues in bad press

began to pile up its player count