Rocksteady Studios co-founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker will probably be leaving the studio (opens in new tab) on the finish of 2022, simply months earlier than the anticipated launch of its subsequent recreation, Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (opens in new tab). The announcement of their departure got here from Warner Bros. Interactive president David Haddad, who referred to as them “nice leaders of the workforce.”
“Visiting Rocksteady Studios has at all times been a spotlight for me personally—the eye to element, the power of the individuals, and a way of what it’s prefer to be in a excessive efficiency studio,” Haddad wrote. “They’ve dedicated to the best high quality and excellence throughout all aspects of recreation improvement whereas guaranteeing an excellent tradition of caring for his or her staff.”
Hill and Walker mentioned the choice to depart Rocksteady “was emotional to say the least,” and that the studio “has been our life and soul” from the day it was based in 2004. “It has given us the chance to do what we love most: Make nice video games with exceptionally proficient individuals. We’re so happy with the workforce right here for the video games we now have all made collectively, from our first recreation City Chaos, to the much-loved Arkham sequence, and now the epic Suicide Squad.”
“Now with Suicide Squad in protected arms, and the workforce right here stronger than ever, it is time to hand over the reins, and for us to begin a brand new journey collectively in video games.”
Rocksteady’s director of manufacturing Nathan Burlow will take over as studio director, whereas Darius Sadeghian will step into the position of studio product director. Haddad mentioned Burlow and Sadeghian are “extraordinarily proficient executives [and] captivated with persevering with the high-quality recreation improvement at Rocksteady for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League and all future video games.”
A message from Jamie & Sefton “We wished you, the Rocksteady followers, to listen to it first; we now have determined to depart Rocksteady… From the day we based the corporate all the way in which to right this moment, Rocksteady has been our life & soul.”https://t.co/3ZRs1NMom2 pic.twitter.com/98I6YOgZrYOctober 26, 2022
Regardless of the upbeat tone of the announcement, the timing of their departure has triggered concern amongst some Rocksteady followers. There’s been some chaos at WBIE due to a 2022 merger with Discovery (opens in new tab) that noticed the sale of not less than one Warner-owned recreation studio and the cancellation of quite a few tv exhibits and flicks, most notably Batgirl (opens in new tab), which was effectively into post-production when the plug was pulled.
Suicide Squad was initially imagined to be out this 12 months and so it is attainable the choice to go was made earlier than the delay, however that occurred again in March and there was no phrase a couple of main shakeup on the high till now. At this level in improvement there’s presumably nothing left however to do however polish the sport, which suggests there is no extra artistic work left for Hill and Walker anyway. However for the optics alone, I might assume that Warner could be anticipating them to stay round not less than till the sport is out the door.
Unsurprisingly, some followers noticed the approaching departure as dangerous information for Suicide Squad, and Rocksteady as a complete:
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League nonetheless does not have a hard and fast launch date, however we anticipate it to reach someday in spring 2023.
