DC Suffers One Of The Biggest Flops In Franchise History

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League only came out in February, but it has already been branded one of the worst games of 2024. Even as details about it were being released in news articles, photos, and trailers, fans were baffled by many of the decisions that were being made. Unfortunately, it appears patience would not be rewarded, and Warner Bros. has wound up losing around $200 million on the game.

Even some of the most hated DC movies did not perform as badly as Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League did. The 2016 Suicide Squad movie was widely panned for Jared Leto’s portrayal of The Joker, clunky dialogue, and an uneven tone. And yet it still made nearly $750 million against its $175 million budget. So that really puts into perspective exactly how harshly fans turned on Kill the Justice League.

To be fair, it sounds like even the team behind Kill the Justice League was aware of the building storm of issues as they were developing the project. Reports point the finger at the leaders of Rocksteady studios (which developed the game) as being the source of much of the mismanagement. Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill held high positions with the project and were repeatedly named by dozens of anonymous developers associated with the project as a mess to work with.

Much like fans themselves noted when seeing early trailers for Kill the Justice League, developers were confused why the game was even made into a shooter in the first place when someone like Harley Quinn is known for her signature mallet or baseball bat. “The change left some staff members wondering why protagonists such as Captain Boomerang, known for fighting with his namesake weapon, would suddenly pivot to gunplay,” said one quote summing up the feelings of the developers who wanted to remain anonymous.

Evidently production of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was rife with these kind of baffling game-play changes that did not complement the expected playstyles of the characters. Similarly, at one point there was apparently supposed to be an emphasis on vehicle combat despite most of the characters having powers that should have enabled them to traverse areas with ease.

“Why, [developers] wondered, would players using Deadshot or King Shark bother with a motorcycle when they could just soar through the air? After months of experimentation and prototyping, the vehicle system was scrapped,” said another quote regarding feelings of the anonymous developers behind Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

It is hard to imagine why Warner Bros. would have been hearing this type of feedback about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in its development cycle and have been left with positive expectations. However, they were apparently hopeful that the game could become a billion dollar franchise. And yet, here now just four months into its release, it has turned into one of their biggest losses and has a nonexistent player base due to how many people hate the game.

Source: PC Gamer