Rocksteady Studios

Rocksteady Studios is a developer.

Rocksteady Studios Webpage, Facebook

A British development studio based in London. The team develops games for consoles and PC, with its biggest success so far being the Batman: Arkham series.

The history of Rocksteady Studios

Humble beginnings

Rocksteady Studios’ story starts in 2004, when Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker teamed up to launch the company. They were former employees of Argonaut Games, one of the UK’s biggest development studios at the time, which shut down just a month before Rocksteady opened its doors. Rocksteady’s early days were modest - in 2006, the team wrapped up its debut title, an FPS called Urban Chaos: Riot Response. Released exclusively on PlayStation 2 and Xbox, the game drew mixed reactions from both players and critics.

Batman: Arkham, a straight path to success

In May 2007, Eidos (now part of Square Enix) secured the rights to the Batman franchise. Soon after, Rocksteady Studios reached out to the publisher with their vision for a Batman game. Eidos loved the pitch so much that development kicked off that September. Batman: Arkham Asylum launched in August 2009 to widespread acclaim from both players and critics. Although Time Warner acquired Rocksteady Studios in February 2010, Eidos retained a 25.1% stake in the company.

This made the studio part of the Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, paving the way for future games based on the DC Comics license. Batman: Arkham City launched in 2011, building on the success of its predecessor while significantly expanding the series’ gameplay and world. The game launched on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, and years later on the Nintendo Wii U. Unfortunately, fans had to wait nearly four years for the next full installment of the series. In the meantime, Warner Bros. Montreal developed a prequel, Batman: Arkham Origins, which didn’t quite match the quality of its predecessors.

The world didn’t hear about Rocksteady’s next project until 2014, when the studio revealed it was working on the epic conclusion to their trilogy. Batman: Arkham Knight was released in June 2015. That wasn’t the last Batman game from the British studio. In October 2016, Batman: Arkham VR came out - an “interactive experience” designed for virtual reality headsets, serving as the creators’ farewell to Bruce Wayne and his alter ego. After this final release, Rocksteady Studios remained quiet for several years. Occasionally rumors would surface online that the studio was working on a Superman game. Then, in April 2019, unofficial reports suggested the team was developing a title based on the Suicide Squad license. It was the latter that turned out to be true.

Suicide Squad

In August 2020, the studio cleared up all speculation by announcing Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a third-person action game supporting both singleplayer and co-op for up to four players. The game was planned for PC as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, but its release would be a long time coming. Suffice it to say, the developers aimed to release the game in 2022. However, by March 2022, it became clear that the release window would not be met. The studio later confirmed that the game’s release would be pushed to 2023. December - specifically, The Game Awards 2022 - revealed the official release date for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League - May 26, 2023. The game was set to feature Kevin Conroy’s final performance as Batman; the actor passed away on November 10, 2022.

Meanwhile, in August 2020, The Guardian reported that the studio had failed to address complaints of sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior raised by female employees in November 2018. In response, the studio acknowledged that the letter had been sent to management and stated that over the following two years it “listened” to employees and “worked to ensure that every person on the team felt supported.” The day after the article appeared, a letter from all female employees of Rocksteady Studios was published, denying the claims reported by The Guardian, disputing the allegations made on their behalf, and stating that they had not been consulted about the article’s contents.

Leadership shake-up and a crack on reputation

In October 2022, it was announced that Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, co-founders and leaders of Rocksteady Studios, would stay with the team only until the end of the year. The developers said they planned to embark on a “new gaming adventure.” Nathan Burlow, the former production director and studio veteran, was set to take over as head of Rocksteady, with Darius Sadeghian assuming his previous responsibilities.

Returning to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the release date revealed in December 2022 was ultimately missed; in April 2023, the game’s launch was postponed by nearly a year. The game finally launched on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S in February 2024.

With an average score of 60–65/100 across platforms on Metacritic, the game became the lowest-rated title in Rocksteady Studios’ history - even Urban Chaos: Riot Response had a higher average rating. Although fans defended the game, giving it “very positive” reviews on Steam, it failed to become one of the studio’s most popular releases. Although the game peaked at just under 13,500 concurrent players on Steam (according to SteamDB), activity quickly began to decline. Just ten days after release, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League struggled to surpass 5,000 concurrent players on the platform.

Consequences of Suicide Squad's failure

As a result, at the end of February, Gunnar Wiedenfels, chief financial officer of Warner Bros. Discovery, openly admitted that Rocksteady’s latest release “did not meet expectations.” In May, Wiedenfels officially labeled Suicide Squad a “disappointment”. In early September, rumors emerged that Rocksteady Studios was facing a wave of layoffs, potentially affecting more than half of its quality control team. Unsurprisingly, it was tied to the commercial failure of Suicide Squad.

Shortly after, more optimistic reports emerged, suggesting that Rocksteady Studios’ next project would be a new Batman game. Interestingly, Sony was reportedly interested in the project, allegedly aiming for at least temporary exclusivity on PlayStation.

Meanwhile, January 2025 brought news of a second wave of layoffs at Rocksteady Studios, reportedly occurring just before the end of 2024 and affecting an unspecified number of programmers, artists, and testers. A few days later, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League received its final update, allowing the studio to fully focus on its next project.