QUOTE | 'Ah yes, Captain Boomerang and his signature weapon: S H O T G U N' – YouTube user on the gameplay reveal trailer. But Suicide Squad's problems were pretty clear from the moment they showed people what the game actually was. I'll be the first to say that the AAA console space (like almost everything else) is not a meritocracy, and sometimes excellent games fail for no fault of their own, just as some seemingly mediocre games seem to stumble backwards into tremendous success by virtue of clever marketing or serendipitous timing. After all, Perrette's comments suggest that Suicide Squad's struggles were not due to bad decisions about what kind of game people fundamentally wanted, but due to the inherent volatility of the AAA blockbuster business model that Suicide Squad was so desperately trying to break away from. Some people would see that as the takeaway, but apparently not WB executives. And given the heavily narrative roots of those franchises, that could lend itself best to single-player games that tell stories with a beginning, middle, and end. Some people might look at Suicide Squad's poor showing and decide that the way forward would be more games following the formula of notable WB hits like Hogwarts Legacy, the Batman-specific Rocksteady titles, and Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor: take a franchise with a whole lot of fans and then provide them the most immersive possible way to interact with the things they love about that franchise. The actual gameplay of Suicide Squad that WB's marketing department doesn't want you to see, if the downloadable storefront page screenshots are anything to go by. But the most obvious and frequently bemoaned culprit is the game's deviation from Rocksteady's Arkham framework in order to build Suicide Squad as a live service title. There's plenty of room for second guessing which decisions hurt the most – one clear suspect would be featuring a Hall of Fame lineup of heroes but only letting players control Harley Quinn, B-lister Deadshot, and C-tier villains like Captain Boomerang and King Shark. It's also Rocksteady's long-anticipated foray into the rest of the DC Universe beyond Gotham, showcasing the studio's take on iconic characters like Superman and Wonder Woman.īut even with all that time in the oven, Suicide Squad has disappointed critically and commercially. That short novelty aside, the last big game from Rocksteady was 2015's Batman: Arkham Knight. After all, it's the first game from acclaimed studio Rocksteady in eight years, going back to 2016's Batman: Arkham VR. On paper, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League should have been a contender based on pedigree alone. Realistically though, you can understand why the drop-off for WB from last year to this is larger than expected. Pity the poor CEO who has to deal with a tough comp! On paper, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League should have been a contender based on pedigree alone Oh, what a rotten fate it is to have been unusually successful last year. And when you don't have a release or unfortunately we also have disappointments – we just released Suicide Squad this quarter which was not as strong – it just makes it very volatile.' – Warner Bros Discovery global streaming and games CEO and president JB Perrette, telling investors this week that the company wants to rely less on AAA console games, and more on mobile and live service titles. That's a great business when you have a hit like Harry Potter, it makes the year look amazing. QUOTE | 'The challenge we've had is our business historically has been very AAA console based. It never is.Įspecially now in 2024, when the numbers WB's gaming business is putting up are being compared to the numbers it put up last year when Hogwarts Legacy launched. Warner Bros Discovery's gaming division had a pretty great year in 2023, thanks in large part to the success of Hogwarts Legacy, which was the first non-Call of Duty, non-Rockstar-developed game to finish the year atop the Circana/NPD Group's best-sellers list since Rock Band did it in 2008. This Week in Business is our weekly recap column, a collection of stats and quotes from recent stories presented with a dash of opinion (sometimes more than a dash) and intended to shed light on various trends. Sign up for the GI Daily here to get the biggest news straight to your inbox

Sinclair shooting rest