Really great piece by Jason. Feels like all of these live service flops have a very similar story: management sees how big Destiny is in 2016, thinks this is the direction gaming will go in. Spends YEARS developing a game with no real direction besides make it live service and throw everything and the kitchen sink at it. Staff lose confidence in it but management says to believe in “bioware magic” or whatever. Game comes out and flops and management doesn’t under stand why so blames it on market volatility, maybe if we try the same thing again?
Good news is it looks like there won’t be job losses and RS will go back to making single player games.
Accurate-Internet232
Ah, the infamous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game, huh? Well, let’s just say it didn’t exactly fly off the shelves like hotcakes. It’s like they tried to make a soufflé but ended up with scrambled eggs instead.
Andulias
Two things in life are inevitable. Death and a Jason Schreier article after a massive AAA flop from an established studio.
VermilionX88
I can enjoy live service games
I played some that I liked a lot… marvel heroes online, swtor, eso
But this one just wasn’t interesting to me
Pressure_Chief
What about Skull and Bones? That had to be a bigger flop right?
Askolei
TLDR; Rocksteady grew too big too fast which led to huge management problems and miscommunications. Same as Bioware under EA and countless others.
> During the early days, the studio kept its work on Suicide Squad a secret, even from potential hires. Several people who came on board during this era said they were surprised when they first arrived at the offices to learn that they would be working on a multiplayer game, not at all what Rocksteady was known for. Many would depart as a result.
I also find it insightful that people came to work specifically on solo games and just went away when it was revealed it wouldn’t happen.
i010011010
Yet you will never hear about anyone in a position of decision-making in the companies being fired over it. They’ll lay off artists, sound engineers, and programmers who all did their jobs as directed. But never that fucker who stood up in every meeting and said “we aren’t here to make entertaining games, we’re here to cram one more multiplayer shooter into a market that is already staked”.
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Really great piece by Jason. Feels like all of these live service flops have a very similar story: management sees how big Destiny is in 2016, thinks this is the direction gaming will go in. Spends YEARS developing a game with no real direction besides make it live service and throw everything and the kitchen sink at it. Staff lose confidence in it but management says to believe in “bioware magic” or whatever. Game comes out and flops and management doesn’t under stand why so blames it on market volatility, maybe if we try the same thing again?
Good news is it looks like there won’t be job losses and RS will go back to making single player games.
Ah, the infamous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League video game, huh? Well, let’s just say it didn’t exactly fly off the shelves like hotcakes. It’s like they tried to make a soufflé but ended up with scrambled eggs instead.
Two things in life are inevitable. Death and a Jason Schreier article after a massive AAA flop from an established studio.
I can enjoy live service games
I played some that I liked a lot… marvel heroes online, swtor, eso
But this one just wasn’t interesting to me
What about Skull and Bones? That had to be a bigger flop right?
TLDR; Rocksteady grew too big too fast which led to huge management problems and miscommunications. Same as Bioware under EA and countless others.
> During the early days, the studio kept its work on Suicide Squad a secret, even from potential hires. Several people who came on board during this era said they were surprised when they first arrived at the offices to learn that they would be working on a multiplayer game, not at all what Rocksteady was known for. Many would depart as a result.
I also find it insightful that people came to work specifically on solo games and just went away when it was revealed it wouldn’t happen.
Yet you will never hear about anyone in a position of decision-making in the companies being fired over it. They’ll lay off artists, sound engineers, and programmers who all did their jobs as directed. But never that fucker who stood up in every meeting and said “we aren’t here to make entertaining games, we’re here to cram one more multiplayer shooter into a market that is already staked”.
Redfall was worse.