Suicide Squad Developers Recount "Soul-Destroying" Live-Service Cycle

Lead developers behind Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League have opened up about the grueling development process of the live-service title, detailing a corporate-driven cycle that nearly drove key talent to exit the industry. It turns out that building a forever-game can make the people creating it wish they were doing literally anything else.

The co-director of the project, Axel Rydby, alongside other lead Rocksteady developers, recently shared the realities of working on the failed live-service title. It seems that when a creative studio is asked to construct a perpetual-revenue machine, the blueprints can look less like art and more like tax preparation.

What changed for the team

The shift toward managing an ongoing service model took a heavy toll on the design pipeline. Rydby recounted that the prolonged development cycle eventually felt "like I wasn't making games anymore." Instead of focusing on traditional game design, he noted that the day-to-day workflow made him feel like he was simply "following a spreadsheet."

The focus on metrics and endless retention loops over raw gameplay experiences is a familiar friction point in modern development, but hearing it from the top of a major studio adds a stark data point to the conversation.

How it affected the developers

The impact of this prolonged, spreadsheet-driven development went beyond creative frustration. The exhausting process nearly pushed multiple senior developers to quit the video game industry for good, turning what should have been a career peak into an endurance test.

The struggle highlights a broader tension across the medium, as publishers continue to chase recurring revenue models. One designer on the team warned that the current path of major publishers pursuing live-service models is causing the industry to "severely lose our way."

The details

• Key figures: Co-director Axel Rydby and senior Rocksteady developers
• Key issue: Exhaustion from a prolonged live-service development cycle
• Industry warning: A designer cautioned that pursuing live-service models is causing the industry to "severely lose our way"

Why it matters

The candid reflections from Rocksteady's leadership offer a rare window into the human cost of modern publishing mandates. When chasing a live-service trend exhausts senior talent to the point of nearly leaving the industry, the long-term sustainability of the model becomes as much of a question as its profitability.