The story of Rocksteady Studios’ Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has not been a happy one. With many gamers decrying it from the mere title and concept alone on its announcement several years ago, to the gameplay reveal showing that it adhered to the GAAS model of development, to the game being the final performance of the legendary Kevin Conroy in a role many felt was wasted, to the possibly racist undertones to the John Stewart Green Lantern in-game biography, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had no shortage of controversies surrounding itself, but all that news coverage has done nothing to contribute to the game’s playerbase, as it has dipped into the triple digits on Steam.
As I reported mere week after its release, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League didn’t exactly do numbers close to its release date, only garnering around 1000 players on Steam, a number that has only dwindled since then. However, as will all Games As A Service model games, subsequent updates and small purchases look to fuel the fire of the game and drive interest with content drops, no doubt the Joker release for the game was meant to drive some traffic back into the game. However, Suicide Squad’s numbers have only tanked since then, with only 200 players playing at time of writing (with a daily high of around 400), with negative reviews coming in for the Joker release in general, thing’s aren’t looking good for the future of this game, if it even has one.
To be fair, however, these are only the players playing through Steam and thus the number could be higher considering console players. Though even considering that, 400 daily players for a AAA game that recently released and is banking on a continuous playerbase to feed its transaction model is probably not a great sign.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will likely be a prime warning to developers in the future about the failures of the GAAS design, as it has only been lambasted on all sides since release. Warner Brothers themselves might even want to reconsider their stance on making all their future games follow this philosophy, if Suicide Squad is any indication of how such projects will go.