Warner says Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has fallen short of expectations

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has “fallen short” of Warner Bros. Discovery’s expectations.

Following a number of delays, the game was released on February 2 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam, with a further delayed Epic Games Store release planned for March 5.

Chief financial officer Gunnar Wiedenfels provided a brief update on the game’s early performance during Warner Bros. Discovery’s fourth quarter earnings call on Friday.

“We are lapping the release of Hogwarts Legacy in February last year, which saw the largest portion of its very positive financial impact in the first quarter,” he said.

“This year, Suicide Squad, one of our key video game releases in 2024, has fallen short of our expectations since its release earlier in the quarter, setting our games business up for a tough year-over-year comp in Q1.”

As the latest title from Rocksteady Studios, the creator of the celebrated Batman Arkham franchise, Suicide Squad was once one of the industry’s most highly anticipated games, but enthusiasm for it seemingly waned during a protracted development cycle which included some underwhelming pre-release showings and a backlash to its live service elements.

The game released to a mixed critical reception, earning it scores of 60 (consoles) and 63 (PC) on review aggregation site Metacritic, while its launch was negatively impacted by server issues and an auto-completion bug.

Rocksteady recently confirmed that Suicide Squad’s free seasonal content will be themed around different DC characters, starting in March with The Joker.

In November, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said the company was focused on turning its biggest franchises into live service games.