Rocksteady Studios Hit With Layoffs Following Suicide Squad Underperformance

[RazedInBlack]

Rocksteady Studios has become the latest AAA developer to be hit with layoffs. Over the course of the past two years, numerous companies that include Bungie, Electronic Arts, Activision, Riot Games, and Epic Games have made layoffs of their own. Meanwhile, other studios like Arkane Austin, Ready at Dawn, and Volition have shut down entirely. Now, Rocksteady is the latest studio to join this growing slate after it failed to meet expectations with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

As reported by Eurogamer, various members of Rocksteady relayed to the publication this morning that layoffs were beginning to hit the studio. Rocksteady's QA team, in particular, seems to have been hit hardest lately as it has gone from roughly 33 members in total to now 15. While this might not seem like a large amount, the jobs that have been made redundant are said to be so specialized that other members of the company will now be placed under much more stress to fill the gaps that have been left. Outside of QA, it's known that other layoffs are happening across Rocksteady, but the extent to which is still unclear.

Rocksteady Studios Hit With Layoffs Following Suicide Squad Underperformance

Rocksteady is the latest major game developer to suffer layoffs.

comicbook.com

 

[AdrianH]

I read an article the other week where they were saying that almost all these game studios went crazy during covid and started hiring left, right and centre. This was due to the uptake of gaming during the covid pandemic when people were at home. Second to this, the devs were getting paid top dollar when they were hired as the demand for game devs was high. A lot of them were job hopping to secure higher salary during this time, sometimes jumping every 6 months over a 2 year period.

Fast forward a few years, and the studios started letting these higher paid devs go (as we have seen over the last 18 months or so) due to the lower demands in games. This means the demand for game devs is at a low and these dev can't find jobs. Well they can, but at massive pay reductions from what they were getting a few years prior. The ones that are still employed are mainly the ones that were employed before the pandemic, the ones on lower salaries while the new hires were paid higher salaries.