Suicide Squad Backlash Doesn't Stop Warner Bros from Doubling Down on Live-Service Games

I love how things in modern world become trending just after most of the audience got totally fed-up with them...

the most successful one out of those games is Hogwarts legacy which is single player and not a live service game.

so the lesson WB learned from that was more live service games ?

baffling

@trev666

I guess that's why the top brass at WB Games get the big bucks!

@trev666 Sounds like what they got out of that was "should've included microtransactions, dammit"

Tbf I'm sure it's a pretty successful model with MK but that's a whole different genre and it's not like they're going to release any other fighting games anytime soon

This is going to be an absolute Sh**show!! After the huge backlash from Suicide Squad, I thought that Warner Brothers would reevaluate their stance, but nope. I really fear for RockSteady going forward, because they will foot the blame when things go wrong..

This could become an Anthem situation, EA pushed them and it really hurt their reputation. Never fully come back from that. I understand that these publishers and Devs want as much money as possible (it's a business) but there has to be a time when they understand not all micro transaction games will be a success.

making loads of money by making and selling a good game isnt enough nowdays.

publishers arnt happy unless they are making Fortnite or GTA money

And the only one I cared about was Hogwarts.

Didn't know about them having GoT. I want a new GoT game.

You know how companies have been re-releasing older games from the ps3 era with the online stripped out? Well I’m expecting WB to re-release Arkham Origins with the single player stripped out leaving just the crap multiplayer at this rate.

All the publishers jumping headfirst and doubling down on Live service games are going to be recording huge financial losses soon, which in turn will lead to more lay off's within the industry.

Its like they wondered through the live service graveyard but forgot to open their eyes

I thought the obvious thing to do would be pivot from live service to normal games and use ports/remasters to fill in the gaps between new games. Like how in December, Switch is getting a port of the Rocksteady Arkham Trilogy.

But I guess they fell for the same traps as before by looking at Fortnite breaking records and not the gigantic live service graveyard that has formed over time.

The truth is that if only 1 live service game becomes as big as COD or Fortnite it would erase all losses and even propel the studio into a higher stratosphere. No SP game can do this.

Sony and WB should def try until they get it right.

@TripleKing333 I didn't even remember that had multiplayer. Pretty sure I never tried that.

Well I guess these games will flop hard then

@Voltan Yeah it was in the middle of the online pass era where every major game had to have a pointless bolted on multiplayer mode like BIOSHOCK 2, Dead Space 2, Spec Ops the Line, etc

@trev666 Hogwarts legacy generated billions of money

Boy Suicide Squad...I am so curious what they are going to do with that game. It just seems destined to fail. I can't think of another upcoming AAA title with a more uphill climb than that one has.

Just a strange stance to take after they just made a boatload of cash off Hogwarts Legacy.

Looks like WB is dead set on killing Rocksteady and NetherRealm studios, which were previously highly praised. Mortal Kombat 1 has a great core mechanics, but the monetization and lack of day 1 content will kill it. Suicide Squad had to be delayed because of the reception of the live service stuff and they double down on this?

WOW

I’m getting Gotham Knights vibes from this game

They are so screwed hahaha There is absolutely no more room for more of these type of games. I guess they’ll learn this the hard way.

This is gonna end badly for them.

They speed of thinking is like Internet Explorer... Didn't they already read any news, that GaaSes are imploding???

The corporate/management side of things only see how much money can be made from a product/game, and in theory live-service increases revenue because of season passes, DLC etc bringing in the monies over a longer period of time compared to the one-off sale of a boxed or digital game. So there is an ounce of logic with what this CEO is saying. However it falls apart when you realise creating a successful live-service game is basically finding a needle in a haystack. For every Fortnite there's probably 20, 30+ failures? Every week there seems to be a game closing its servers after increasingly short periods of time. Additionally the percentage of gamers who want this type of game compared to what percentage executives think want this sort of thing is wildly different. If you haven't got that instant hook, offer something different or increasing player count and positive feedback they're on to a loser. Based on that State of Play I know what my prediction for this one is...

What these folks don't understand is that IF someone wanted a "live service" game, there is only room in their schedule for one.
It isn't like someone is juggling 3 or 4 of these types of games.
The major opinion through this thread is correct. Single player experiences is what is gaining attention and money from the gaming public. Best example from this year is BG3. For every live service game put in the market, it causes another live service to fall by the wayside. This represents much time, talent, and attention that could be given to a quality single player game.
I predict that Suicide Squad has the shortest shelf life of any WB game IF it even comes to market.

They all will more than likely fail, and im going to love watching it 😁. Guess WB will just have to learn the hard way. 🤷‍♂️

@Svark Precisely, the suits don't know or understand why single player games appeal to the number they do. It feels games like Suicide Squad are being forced on the gamers, generic and bang average game with a license that to be fair would appeal to many but gone the wrong way about. Also agree the shelf life of this could be a record.

@KillerBoy and the Switch version is coming so they will have another billions on top of that too. I don't know why they can't see a good IP will make money

Greedy idiots...it'll blow up in their faces and they won't get why.

These execs are so out of touch of what people want, live services and that short lived time they wanted to have NFTs in their games isn’t the play. If they make a good single player game which Rockstar should be able to do, make dlc stories or costumes and people will buy it for a game they enjoy. But guess the execs love to see a live service game be played for like a week, have 100-200 people play it a month later and ask themselves “what went wrong”

I hope it totally bombs.

Insert GIF of the Joker saying “You get what you f$cking deserve”

Seriously, chasing a sailing ship that no one wants to be on anymore. What a shameful business practice and worst of all, the devs will probably pay the price and not the executives making the crappy decisions.

The world of game development seems scary with these terrible practices and consistent layoffs.

A terrible idea that will end badly.

What a surprise! The world’s most hated and inept CEO, David Zaslav, is aiming for more live service games.
This is the guy who made his fortune on the worst kind of reality TV trash. Who single-handedly drove HBO into the ground and renamed it Max.
This guy is allergic to quality content, doesn’t matter if it’s movies, series or games.

I think I have the same opinion as the rest of you, this CEO has 0 knowledge of how the games industry works and thinks its all a cash grab.

Even when numbers are staring him in the face with the fantastic release of Hogwarts Legacy.

Does he not understand, all us gamers want is a triple A top quality single player game of our favourite franchises.

Insomniac showed us how a Triple A Spiderman game should be made.

Avalanche showed us how a Triple A Harry Potter Universe game should be.

Teyon has shown us even Robocop can be a force to be reckoned with.. in the best way possible a double A game literally suits how Robocop was made.

And to top it off

WBs very own Rocksteady, showed them and us a Batman game can be a Triple A Masterpiece, not only 1 but 3 games and even with its side kick Batman Origins from WB games themselves.

What did WB do it looks like demand these studios make live service games about characters no one ever wanted to truly play as and even if they worked their magic and make us realise we did, they made them strange co op live service games.

I'm still baffled by what has happened.

Batman Origins was a great first go in my eyes, what a waste of a developer with Gotham Knights.

RockSteady...... before the announcement the theories were wild, they actually couldn't put a step wrong, in Rockstesdy we blindly trusted because of those 3 great single player games.
Roll on to now. The main creators have left because they knew and what we was left with was a gebric free to play game with a batman universe skin over the top. Rest In Peace Rocksteady, gone to soon.