It’s not often in the gaming industry that developers and publishers have access to an untold wealth of popular intellectual property, but Warner Bros. is in that unique position. Very few publishers can boast a roster of characters that have been stalwarts in the entertainment industry with a built-in audience eager to consume. The gaming industry now exists within a cross-media environment where a franchise’s health is now dependent on spreading its exposure across various channels. Players are usually ready to engage with a new format, and new fans are earned and often shuffled through this unique brand of marketing funnel, directing them to the source material.

This should, in essence, seem like a play that Warner Bros. Games has mastered, and they have years before this. Still, recent events have brought into question their ability to deliver games that fans are asking for and their ability to harness their powerful stable of well-known and loved IP fully. At the end of February 2025, Warner Bros. Games announced that it would shut down three studios and cancel the Wonder Woman game that had long been in development. The news didn’t exactly come as a shock as the publisher had reported dire financial results, primarily driven by their ill-advised Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Sets Off a Chain of Events

A Household Name Wasn’t Enough to Save It

By all accounts, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League appears to have been the cannon salvo that sunk, or in this case, mortally wounded the ship. Warner Bros. Games had actually entered into 2024 in an advantageous position. Fiscal figures weren’t publicly disclosed, but their open-world Harry Potter game, Hogwarts Legacy, sold over 30 million units worldwide, making it the best-selling game of 2023.

Mortal Kombat 1, a soft reboot of the series, also posted a respectable five million units sold. Warner Bros. Games’ next tentpole based on a lucrative DC property, was due to come out later in Feb. 2024. No one could have predicted the disaster that was about to unfold. Many post-mortems have been conducted to find out why Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League failed so spectacularly, but the common theme was that audiences didn’t want it.

When it was announced, many players were overjoyed to hear that developer Rocksteady would create another DC adventure. They had previously worked wonders with the Batman Arkham trilogy, delivering a tight and polished single-player action game that so intertwined itself with its source material. However, as time passed and more details regarding Kill the Justice League were revealed, a general malaise set in.

A Move to a Live Service Platform Doomed the Game

Rocksteady was Too Inexperienced, and Audiences Just Didn’t Want It

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Despite having at least one solid single-player game under their belt, Warner Bros. Games had decided to pitch Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League as a live-service game. This model was originally pitched in 2016, and as time went on, executives became enthusiastic about the idea. Countless presentations extolled the virtues of continuous monetization and player engagement models, extracting the most profit over an extended period.

It wasn’t without merit; games such as Destiny, Dead by Daylight, Overwatch, and countless more were able to employ this exact model. However, Warner Bros.’s approach did not work because they were unable to assess the strength and merits of their IP properly. Instead of forming a game that complemented the often wacky adventures the Suicide Squad finds themselves in, a bland sandbox was created populated with recognizable characters.

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It is certainly not enough to smash two popular ideas together and call it a day, and that is, in essence, what Warner Bros. did. A Suicide Squad game was the right call; the brand was at its pinnacle, with the movie and comic books doing incredibly well. An anime was announced, signaling that the property had crossed borders and entered the international cultural zeitgeist.

For years, Harley Quinn was the go-to Halloween costume; even minor characters received their own streaming spinoffs. But this was all conducted by Warner Bros. Discovery, with some sort of recognition of what audiences wanted. A different story ensued when the baton was passed to Warner Bros. Games. Rocksteady was never equipped to develop a live service game, and while it was an admirable task, its bread and butter was polished single-player adventures.

The developers’ lack of experience in this arena didn’t stop Warner Bros. Games from pumping a large amount of money into the project and growing the studio to 250 people. Rocksteady was unprepared for the complexities of a live service game. Developers and engineers were left scrambling as the project continued to morph into a game that Warner Bros. thought players wanted.

The Allure of The Suicide Squad is Much More Than Completing Objectives

Kill the Justice League Gave Players the Blandest Version of One of DC’s Wackiest Properties

The Suicide Squad IP was mismanaged, not only due to Warner Bros. handing it to a studio with no online games experience but also because the live service genre does not lend itself to the property’s best qualities. The Suicide Squad, in their better incarnations, are a rag-tag group of villains who work together, using their very distinct powers to save the day. Kill the Justice League did very little to bring this across. Instead, most characters played very similarly, with a mind-boggling emphasis on gunplay rather than powers.

The Suicide Squad presented in Save the Justice League was not the cast of characters fans had come to love. There are also stakes in most Suicide Squad adventures; many plot points revolve around betrayals, head detonations, and out-of-left-field surprises. The all-too-familiar Metropolis was a world that waited for the player to interact with it. It sat stagnant, bereft of any personality.

Once the story had been completed, it was all too telling that Braniac’s tentacles still crisscrossed the city, and the objective of the following four seasons was to kill more Braniacs. Yes, every IP, despite our connections with them, is a product being sold to the consumer, but Kill the Justice League made that obvious. A game that was so stripped of nuance, it wasn’t even able to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

MultiVersus Dissapoints Despite its Strong Roster

In 1 Year, the Smash Competitor Went From One of the Most Played Games to Being Shut Down

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League wasn’t the publishers’ only failure in 2024. The Warner Bros. Games’ Super Smash Bros. competitor, MultiVersus, also failed to make an impression. Once again, Warner Bros. leveraged its impressive roster of well-known characters to create a game that should have found an audience.

Where else could Arya Stark battle it out against Jake from Adventure Time and Bugs Bunny? The game lasted only five seasons despite regularly introducing new characters to the roster. It should be noted that competing in the Smash-like arena fighter genre is notoriously difficult. Many others have tried, including Sony with its PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale, Nickeldeon’s All-Star Brawl and LEGO Brawls.

Since its open beta in 2022, the game has had a mixed reception but was, at one point, the most-played game on Steam. In Mar. 2023, it was taken offline to address player concerns and significant updates were implemented. Another large change was made in 2024 when the game transitioned to Unreal Engine 5; however, this didn’t move the needle on players’ perceptions of the game.

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Many have voiced their discontent, saying the developers had never listened to the community, leading to its demise. Whatever the reason for its failure might be, it was another setback for Warner Bros. Games. This effect was amplified as Warner Bros. acquired MultiVersus’ developer, Player First Games, in Jul. 2024, closing it down seven months later.

The common thread is Warner Bros.’s failure to properly serve its already-invested audience. Their simple equation of combining high-value IP with a live-service platform in search of profits was misguided. Perhaps they had taken note from Fortnite, which is now a pop-cultural playground, but beneath all of those licenses is a solid and engaging game.

Warner Bros. allocated an inordinate amount of resources to create flawed and uninteresting experiences. Many players have become increasingly fatigued by live-service games, and the industry is seeing more and more high-profile failures. Most recently, Sony’s Concord, a would-be Overwatch competitor, shut down just 14 days after launch. Square Enix has tried its hand twice with Marvel’s Avengers and Babylon’s Fall, with middling to disastrous results.

Parent Company Warner Bros. Discovery Begins to Take Notice

Rocksteady is Hit With Layoffs as Warner Begins to Make Cuts

The company certainly felt the effects of this. Warner Bros. Games experienced a 29% drop in year-on-year revenue for Q4 2024. Warner Bros. revealed that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League incurred a $200m loss. Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zslav called the game’s sales “disappointing.” MultiVersus played its part, too, contributing another $100m loss.

In response, Zaslav said, “… we recognize [Warner Bros. Games] is substantially underperforming its potential right now.” Post-launch, Warner was unable to draw in any further players. MultiVersus launched limited edition $30 Halloween skins, and Kill the Justice League was made available to Amazon Prime members a few months after its launch. There was just no appetite.

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In Sept. 2024, Rocksteady underwent layoffs which saw reductions in the QA department and cuts to junior staff and team members. A later report suggested that programmers and artists were also affected, with many of those let go having served at the company for over five years. One former employee recounted how he had received notice of his dismissal while on paternity leave.

Warner Bros. made no acknowledgment that the layoffs took place. However, Eurogamer independently confirmed this. February then saw the decisive cuts to the Warner Bros. Games portfolio. MultiVersus devs Player First Games were shut down, with game director Tony Huynh describing it as “painful for everyone”.

A Long-Running Studio is Caught in the Crossfire

Monolith Didn’t Cause Warner’s Problems, But It Was Definitely on the Receiving End of Them

A surprising closure was that of the revered studio Monolith. Along with Rocksteady, the studio was a sort of golden goose. Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and its sequel Shadow of War were well-received games that sold well. The studio had also previously put out the ground-breaking first-person shooter F.E.A.R. and the cult classic Condemned series.

Monolith was acquired by Warner Bros. in 2004, making it one of the longest-running studios in its portfolio. In 2021, the studio announced it would be working on a Wonder Woman title, but it stayed quiet in the following years. In Feb. 2025, in a statement to Kotaku, Warner Bros. confirmed that “The development of Monolith’s Wonder Woman video game will not move forward.”

Early in February, rumors that the game was in crisis made the rounds that the Wonder Woman game was in crisis. Those rumors were true. Reports suggested that the game had faced severe challenges, and despite the considerable investment, Warner Bros. did not see a path forward to profitability.

A sad casualty of the closure of Monolith was the tech it produced. Monolith’s LithTec engine and its various iterations have been a staple for the studio since its inception. One of their more groundbreaking inventions was the Nemesis System, implemented in Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War. This dynamic mechanic allows enemies to remember their last encounters and act accordingly.

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While the details of the 2004 acquisition are unknown, it is believed that Warner Bros. holds the license and patents for Monolith’s engines and systems. This means the Nemesis System might not see implementation until after 2036. In a memo, the head of games and streaming for Warner, JB Perrette wrote, “We need to make some substantial changes to our portfolio/team structure if we are to commit the necessary resources to get back to a ‘fewer but bigger franchises’ strategy.”

Those bigger franchises will now be Mortal Kombat, Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and DC comics. Rocksteady is reportedly developing a new Batman game; however, nothing has been announced. Perrette assured employees, “We’ll get right back to profitability in 2025”. However, the publisher has only one AAA game set to release in 2025, Game of Thrones: Kingsroad.

Hogwarts Legacy 2 has been announced to be in development, but that would be years away. The closure of Warner Bros. San Diego, a support studio that assisted with live-service game development, has driven home the sentiment that Warner will not be experimenting with games-as-a-service titles in the near future.

Warner Bros. 2024 Shows the Effect One Bad Year Can Have

Will They be Able to Turn Things Around in 2025?

So what has Warner Bros. Games’ dalliance with live-service games cost them? Hundreds of millions of dollars, reputational damage, and the loss of one of the industry’s most innovative studios. A month before news broke of the closures and cancelations, David Haddad departed from his position as CEO, a role he filled for 12 years. Last year, it was reported that Warner might be looking to sell its gaming division, but it appears they will be doubling down in some areas, much like NetEase.

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Warner Bros. is sitting on a treasure trove of IP, yet they are unable to fully leverage these properties into something great. Competitors like Marvel and Disney have proved how lucrative licensing in-demand IPs is. Warner’s insistence on developing the majority of their projects in-house has put an immense financial strain on the company and limited the number of titles that can be released. In an industry that has become increasingly more volatile, it is perhaps a wake-up call for them.

When a company assumes complete financial burden, they may benefit, such as with Hogwarts Legacy, or it might mortally wound them, like with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Sustainable game development may need more financial exposure for more parties. It may also need a few more stakeholders outside of Warner Bros. Games to say, “Hey, maybe this course of action isn’t such a good idea”.