Rocksteady Studios, contrary to its name, is in a pretty shaky place right now. The developer has long been known for the critically acclaimedArkhamseries – all three games (Asylum, City, and Knight) were well reviewed by critics, beloved by fans, and considered by many at the time to be the best superhero games ever made.
Insomniacprobably shares that honour with Rocksteady now, after its string of highly popular and very compellingSpider-Mangames.
We’re Not Mad At Suicide Squad, Just Disappointed
How Did Rocksteady Fall From Grace?
But Rocksteady’s reputation has been marred by its most recent project, the live-service titleSuicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which just received itsfinal update. Suicide Squad was fraught from the beginning – it was a spin-off of the Arkham trilogy and teased at the end of Arkham Knight, which should have bode well for the game, except that it wasa live-service shooterlaunching into an already crowded genre, in a time when people were tiring of this type of thing altogether years before it came out.
To make things worse, Rocksteady’sco-founders left during development. Reports detailed a troubled development process, withsexual harassment scandalsand apretty terrible response to boot.Previews were overwhelmingly negativeacross the board. Many, including our Features Lead Jade King, were shocked that such an acclaimed studio had disappeared for eight years after the release ofBatman: Arkham VRjust to return with anundeniably corporate(albeit narratively subversive) spin on an already overdone genre.
The team washit with layoffs after the game failed, and thenagain after the game’s disappointing final update, which gave players a rushed ending to the story that didn’t make all that much sense while going back on all the coolest things about its concept. It’s unclear what Rocksteady will go on to do next, butBloomberg reportedlast June that the studio was helping to develop a “director’s cut” version ofHogwarts Legacy, and that studio leaders were looking to pitch a new single-player game after the failure of Suicide Squad.
What Could Rocksteady’s Next Game Be?
I’m sure many people are hoping for Rocksteady to return to what it’s historically done best: single-player, story-driven Batman games. After Suicide Squad’s failure, it’s unlikely that the studio’s corporate overlords will be willing to take another gamble on live-service.
Indeed, we’re reportedly beginning to see big companies like Sony, which wastrying to push forward a huge slate of live-service games,cancel its PlayStation projects. It might be too soon to say this, but finally, mercifully, it seems like the live-service bubble might be popping. It’s just Sony now, but I think we’ll see other companies following suit within the next year or so.
But I’m here to propose that Rocksteady shouldn’t go back to Batman at all, or any superhero, for that matter. With its reputation in the dumps, any follow-up to the series will be under high scrutiny, with a new game acting as a pivotal point in its redemption arc. That’s a lot of baggage to carry, which arguably, it doesn’t deserve – Suicide Squad wasn’t Rocksteady’s idea, but Warner’s.
This is the best time to wipe the slate clean and do something wholly new, free of the baggage of IP, history, and associations with failure. It’s clear that Rocksteady can make great games because it has in the past. It deserves a chance to break free of the box it’s been forced into for the last fifteen years and try something wholly new. According to Bloomberg’s report, the studio had been working on something totally new before it pivoted to Suicide Squad. It could do that again.
That said, I’m not sure if that’s in the cards for the developer. If you look at Rocksteady’s history, you’ll see that apart from its first game, Urban Chaos: Riot Response in 2006, all six of the studio’s games have been Batman-focused. It’s a de facto Batman game developer at this point, possibly because it’s owned by Warner Bros. Games, and DC is also owned by Warner Bros. It might be up to Warner andpossibly even DC Studios head James Gunn.
Nonetheless, I’m holding out hope. Rocksteady doesn’t deserve to be locked into the Arkham-verse forever, and players deserve to see something new, too.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League
WHERE TO PLAY
An open-world action-adventure from Arkham creators Rocksteady, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League puts you in the roles of the antihero squad. You must take on the aforementioned Justice League, either in solo play or online co-op.
