If the final decade has taught us something, it is that reside service sport growth is the trade’s equal of excessive stakes playing, the place publishers ante up tens of millions of {dollars} within the hopes that their sport would possibly hit the jackpot of turning into a life-style like Fortnite and Roblox. But as we have seen from numerous failed launches, nearly no one hits the jackpot. When even Destiny 2 is having a tough time sustaining its place as a without end sport fixture, the wager looks like a nasty one.
Warner Bros., nevertheless, has apparently by no means met a gambler’s fallacy it did not like. Despite dropping a mixed $300 million {dollars} with Suicide Squad: Kill the Jusitce League and Multiversus, a brand new job posting signifies that WB Games is as soon as once more chasing the reside service dream (by way of Eurogamer).
The itemizing is for an executive producer position at Gotham Knights developer and Suicide Squad help studio WB Games Montreal. In the job description, Warner Bros. says the chief producer “will 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 itemizing would not inform us what IP the unannounced sport will probably be based mostly on (given WB Montreal’s oeuvre, I would not blame you for speculating it’s going to be one thing within the bigger Batmanosphere). But based mostly on the next job tasks specified within the itemizing, we get a transparent image of what sort of sport Warner Bros. has in thoughts:
- Oversee all phases of growth, from idea to post-launch reside operations.
- Oversee post-launch content material and reside service technique, guaranteeing ongoing participant engagement.
Additionally, the posting lists “deep understanding of the full game development lifecycle, including live services” below its most popular {qualifications}.
Reports from February appeared to point that Warner’s reside service fever is likely to be breaking, as sources mentioned Rocksteady was trying to return to its Arkham roots with a singleplayer Batman manufacturing. Evidently, that pivot shifted the reside service obligations to WB Games Montreal, which had contributed further growth work on Suicide Squad after being pulled from a Flash sport that sources say was scrapped in 2023.
It’s price noting that Suicide Squad’s flop led to 99 layoffs at WB Games Montreal in December 2024. While these layoffs primarily affected QA subcontractors from Keywords, it does really feel fairly grim to know the studio’s dealing with the following reside service gambit when it hasn’t even been a yr since Warner’s final blunder led to its bloodletting.
But hey. Maybe third time’s the appeal.
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