Warner Bros. Games aren’t pushing the brakes on games with live service elements any time soon, despite the whole Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League debacle. A new job listing at Gotham Knights studio WB Games Montréal suggests their upcoming game will have at least some of those long-term servicey bits to it.
Or, at the very least, its executive producer will need to be someone who knows what live services are and can do some live service strategising.
This executive producer listing is looking for a senior dev to “lead the development of a high-quality AAA game based on one of the iconic IPs from the vast Warner Bros. and DC Comics catalog”. The duties which’ll come as part of that involve a need to “oversee all phases of development, from concept to post-launch live operations.”
Things get a tiny bit more specific about that last bit further on, mentioning the successful applicant needs to have a hand in “post-launch content and live service strategy” designed to keep players engaged long-term. “Deep understanding of the full game development lifecycle, including live services,” is also listed in the qualifications and experience section, in case those previous examples aren’t enough mentions of the L and S words for you.
Warner Bros. write that they’re keen to see that the game “not only meets its goals but also pushes the boundaries of what’s possible within the WB and DC universe”, which could well just be job advert speak, but the explicit emphasis on a need for “critical and commercial success” that accompanies it is a noteworthy given the context.
If this project does turn out to be a live service-focused DC game, it’d be following in the footsteps of notorious flop Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. In case you need a refresher, that game’s failure saw it miss its financial targets and become the poster child for a tough period at Warner Bros. Games that eventually led to this year’s reshuffling at the publisher, with Monolith Productions, Player First Games, and Warner Bros. Games San Diego all being shuttered.
There’ve also reportedly been a couple of rounds of layoffs at developers Rocksteady over the past year, because this is the games industry.
ARPG Gotham Knights, while not a hugely high-profile failure like Suicide Squad, ended up attracting mixed reviews at debut in 2022. Our Ed said it contained “the tiniest shreds of goodness”, but confessed to not wanting to play more of it once he was done reviewing. Our Edwin’s a bit more of a fan.
Here’s hoping that if the Montréal studio are being saddled with the need to do a live service – possibly to counteract what’s left of Rocksteady being permitted to go back to singleplayer by Warner’s corporate overlords – they’re at least spared the sort of bad time it sounds like the latter group of devs had creating their big, confused online thing.
