Suicide Squad: The $200 Million Flop

The studio behind the Batman Arkham games spent seven years on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, and Warner wrote $200 million off it three months after launch. This is how Rocksteady ended up making a live service game: the four decisions that sank it (going live service, always online, guns over Arkham's fighting, and a battle pass), what it cost the people who made it, and where Batman goes now that Warner itself has been sold to Skydance. Reported claims are attributed in the video, and my calls are labelled as my reading. Chapters 0:00 The Batman studio's $200 million flop 0:47 Chapter 1: The studio that couldn't miss 2:49 Chapter 2: Seven years 4:46 Chapter 3: Launch week 6:49 Chapter 4: The two hundred million 8:48 Chapter 5: The bill 10:53 Chapter 6: Where Batman goes now 13:34 Chapter 7: The verdict Sources Bloomberg's report on the development (June 2024), via Game Informer: https://gameinformer.com/news/2024/06... Warner's Q1 2024 results, the $200M (GamingBolt): https://gamingbolt.com/suicide-squad-... "Fallen short of our expectations" (PC Gamer, Feb 2024): https://www.pcgamer.com/suicide-squad... JB Perrette on live service, Mar 2024 (80 Level): https://80.lv/articles/warner-bros-to... Rocksteady's founders leave (Game World Observer, Oct 2022): https://gameworldobserver.com/2022/10... Launch-week bug (TechRadar, Jan 2024): https://www.techradar.com/gaming/cons... Rocksteady layoffs, per Eurogamer (PC Gamer, Sep 2024): https://www.pcgamer.com/games/third-p... Final season and offline mode (Insider Gaming): https://insider-gaming.com/suicide-sq... Warner's 2024 game writedowns (Game World Observer, Feb 2025): https://gameworldobserver.com/2025/02... Studio closures, Feb 2025 (Variety): https://au.variety.com/2025/digital/n... MultiVersus shutdown (Shacknews): https://www.shacknews.com/article/142... Hogwarts Legacy passes 40 million (Gematsu, Dec 2025): https://www.gematsu.com/2025/12/hogwa... Warner Bros. Discovery Q2 2026 letter to shareholders: https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/da... Paramount wins Warner (CNBC, Feb 2026): https://www.cnbc.com/2026/02/26/warne... The merger closes (Variety, 6 Oct 2026): https://variety.com/2026/film/news/pa... Warner Bros. Games now belongs to Skydance (GameSpot): https://www.gamespot.com/articles/war... Paramount Games Studio (Variety, Jun 2026): https://variety.com/2026/gaming/news/... Perrette on 2027-28 (Tech4Gamers, citing Variety): https://tech4gamers.com/warner-bros-g... Music by Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com): "Unanswered Questions", "Floating Cities", "Deliberate Thought", "Hidden Agenda", "Redletter", "Aftermath", "Perspectives", "Sincerely". Licensed under CC BY 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/... Sound effects: Mixkit (free licence). Footage: official Warner Bros. Games and DC trailers, muted, for commentary. Game art from Steam; photos via Wikimedia Commons. Gameplay footage (muted, used briefly for commentary), thanks to: A11GreyWolf (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League); Game Archives (Batman: Arkham City); Gamer's Little Playground (Hogwarts Legacy, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League); Loopy Longplays (Hogwarts Legacy); MKIceAndFire (Batman: Arkham Knight, LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League); NRMwalkthroughHD (Destiny 2); RabidRetrospectGames (Batman: Arkham Asylum); RED EK GAMER (Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League); Shirrako (MultiVersus); Thunder (Fortnite); YayaRun (Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition)