Despite losing US$200 million after last year’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Warner Bros. Games has apparently not learnt its lesson and is hard at work on another new live-service title based in the DC Comics universe.
This comes from a job listing for an executive producer role at WB Games Montréal, with the job scope including overseeing “all phases of development, from concept to post-launch live operations”, and the experience required including a “deep understanding of the full game development lifecycle, including live services”. While the exact game title was not specified, the post did mention that it will be a “high-quality AAA game based on one of the iconic IPs from the vast Warner Bros. and DC Comics catalogue.”
It seems that despite its recent string of flops, from the aforementioned Suicide Squad, to the recently shut-down MultiVersus and 2022’s disappointing Gotham Knights, WB Games has decided that the best course of action to regain the favour lost within its playbase is to double down on the very thing they hate, the dreaded live-service format.
This also comes after a studio-wide shake-up late last year, where Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav discussed plans to only focus on four of its major gaming IPs: DC, Hogwarts Legacy, Mortal Kombat, and Game of Thrones, which makes this new live-service game likely to fall under the DC umbrella.
This decision to once again stick to the live-service format becomes even more baffling when considering how tough of a time WB Games has it as of late, with Suicide Squad’s flop leading to a 41 per cent drop in its gaming revenue last year and a four percent decrease across the studio’s entire revenue, which comprises of gaming, TV and cinema.
The studio has also seen layoffs and closures in the months that followed, including a team “restructuring” at Rocksteady in September 2024, and the cancellation of its Wonder Woman game alongside the closure of three studios, Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and WB San Diego in February this year.
Will WB Games’ insistence on the live-service format somehow work in its favour, or is the studio committing career suicide? Only time will tell, but if history has taught us anything about the genre, it’s likely the latter.
Kevin is a reformed PC Master Race gamer with a penchant for franchise “duds” like Darksiders III and Dead Space 3. He has made it his life-long mission to play every single major game release – lest his wallet dies trying.
Si Jia
