Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the next superhero action game from Batman Arkham developer Rocksteady, has been delayed to 2023.
Originally scheduled to release sometime later this year, Bloomberg reports that publisher Warner Bros. has quietly delayed the upcoming video game, citing people familiar with its development.
Rocksteady’s first title since wrapping up the acclaimed Batman Arkham trilogy, Suicide Squad was announced back in 2020 and its first gameplay footage was revealed the year after.
With the game now set to release next year, Suicide Squad will be the latest Rocksteady release in seven years, after Batman: Arkham VR launched on PC and PS4 in 2016.
The game follows four DC comics villains - Harley Quinn, Deadshot, King Shark, and Captain Boomerang - fighting brainwashed superheroes, such as Superman and the Flash, to save Earth.
The open-world game will be playable single-player or in four-player co-op, with each player controlling a different member of the suicide squad, customizing their gear, and coordinating their unique abilities.
Set in the same universe as the Batman Arkham games, it takes place within Metropolis sometime after the caped crusader’s escapades.
Analysis: pandemic delays will stay the norm
As Bloomberg suggests in its original report, development delays and production problems caused by the pandemic have likely meant the game has been pushed back a year.
That fits a pattern, with several upcoming releases from Warner Bros. have been delayed over the last 12 months year: open-world Harry Potter game Hogwarts Legacy was moved from 2021 to sometime later this year, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga was pushed back from the first half of 2021 to April 2022, and Gotham Knights was also postponed from last year to some time in the next 11 months.
While the pandemic caused immediate disruption for triple-A developers, with studios having to adapt to remote working and altered timetables, the effects of those changes are still being felt across the industry. Games were being delayed due to Covid-19 as far back as 2020, and studios are still reeling from the pandemic’s effects.
As long as production is still being hindered by sporadic waves of infections, we can expect more delays across the industry. For now, it’s best to not get too attached to any supposed release dates.
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