Rocksteady Studios has reportedly been hit by layoffs following the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League‘s low sales.
That’s according to Eurogamer, who first reported that the studio’s quality assurance (QA) department has been cut in half over the past month, bringing the size of the team down from 33 members to 15.
The reasoning behind the layoffs is being cited as “restructuring”, with other job cuts expanding outside of the QA department as well, including several members of junior staff and some who have been at the studio for more than five years.
Staff who wished to remain anonymous also told the publication that the job losses – including developers with “specialized knowledge” – are also affecting the Rocksteady staff at large, as employees will now be required to handle their work on top of their own.
The same sources also said that Rocksteady’s senior management has expressed that product quality will now suffer following the layoffs.
Last month, Warner Bros. reported that its gaming revenue had fallen by 41% year-on-year due to the poor performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which cost $200 million to make.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels said in an earnings call that the DC supervillain shooter had “fallen short of our expectations”.
Although Suicide Squad underperformed, Rocksteady is still working on the game’s season pass which will offer additional post-launch content following its early February release.
The first of these updates arrived in March with Season One, with the debut of The Joker as a playable character, followed by Season Two in July, which introduced Mrs. Freeze to the roster, a new map, and two episodes titled Frozen Hearts and Winter. The studio also has plans for seasons three and four.