Warner Bros. might be doing well with its movies and TV shows lately, but when it comes to video games, things feel a bit off. After the success of the single-player Hogwarts Legacy and the flop that was the live-service Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, WB’s leadership wants more live-service games.
This info comes from a job listing spotted by Tech4Gamers. WB Montreal is looking for an executive producer to lead a new AAA game based on Warner Bros. and DC Comics IPs. Sounds promising until you read that the role also includes overseeing post-launch content and a live-service strategy to keep players engaged. That’s a red flag given what happened with Suicide Squad.
Remember how badly Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League performed? It launched with poor reviews, weak sales, and live-service features that failed to engage players. After Marvel’s Avengers tried and failed at live-service superhero games, WB’s attempt ended up losing them around $200 million. Ouch.
There’s talk of Rocksteady working on a more traditional Arkham game, which sounds more in line with what fans want. But WB seems determined to keep pushing DC superheroes into live-service formats. Why? It’s hard enough to maintain a live-service game in 2025, especially one that needs constant new PvE content. Adding superheroes to the mix only makes it trickier.
Look at Marvel’s Avengers. They had to awkwardly shoehorn loot like Black Widow’s belts and Hulk’s rib cages. Delivering new heroes and content on a steady schedule was a nightmare, and they never caught up. Suicide Squad did put out a year’s worth of content before giving up, but it wasn’t great. The loot system forced characters like Captain Boomerang and King Shark to use guns, which made little sense. Plus, the story about killing the Justice League was pretty unpopular, though it turned out the Justice League were clones, except Wonder Woman, who didn’t survive.
What kind of game this new project will be is a mystery. James Gunn has talked about tying video games to the DC Universe, which is ambitious considering how long games take to develop. Maybe that’s what WB is preparing to boost the DC Universe, but creating a good live-service superhero game is incredibly tough. WB really should have learned that by now.
What do you think? Will WB Montreal pull it off this time, or is it just repeating past mistakes? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below.
