Thoughts on the Rocksteady layoffs

Here are some quick thoughts on this situation and broader layoffs across the gaming industry. If I’ve missed or misunderstood something, please let me know. I’m happy to be wrong.

• Rocksteady is a studio known for its single-player games.
• They were pushed by management (or higher?) to make a live-service Suicide Squad game to compete with Destiny and League.
• The development process suffered from a lack of experience by devs in making live-service games (see above), mismanagement, and shifting priorities by execs at WB.
• SS was delayed several times before being released due to mixed critic reviews and poor reception from fans of the previous games.
• Due to low sales for SS, Rocksteady team members were let go.

When are we going to acknowledge that shit like this is the fault of people disconnected from the creative process and have them face the consequences? I’m sick of hearing about companies “realigning for success” or whatever word salad they’re using to justify it this week while keeping these executives on the payroll.

Fire whichever overpaid SVP decided an award-winning single-player studio should build a multiplayer live-service game and let the talented people creating the games keep their jobs.