Overview
- On Thursday, July 2, 2026, Bloomberg published interviews with Axel Rydby and Johnny Armstrong in which both described leaving Rocksteady after the troubled development and poor launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
- Rydby said repeated executive focus on monetization turned design conversations toward spreadsheets and replayability goals that felt at odds with making a creative single-player experience.
- Armstrong described chronic delays, the game’s large scale that made testing hard, and a cycle of small postponements that prevented deeper fixes and drove team burnout.
- Both developers have quit Rocksteady and launched a small independent project called Secret of Circadia, which is currently seeking just over $11,000 on Kickstarter and includes an anti-generative-AI disclaimer.
- The 2024 launch’s weak sales and critical reception are linked in reports to large losses for Warner Bros., and the developers’ accounts have renewed debate about live-service demands, studio priorities, and developer well-being in AAA game production.