Early Access Woes: Suicide Squad Players Encounter Completed Story Issues, Prompting Offline Status
The highly anticipated early access launch of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, scheduled ahead of its official release on February 2, faced an unexpected setback. Merely an hour into the early access period for customers who pre-ordered the Deluxe Edition, Rocksteady Studios, the developers behind the co-op looter shooter, had to make the tough decision to take the game offline due to a critical bug. Reports emerged that players logging into the game during the early access phase were confronted with an unforeseen issue – the complete story was already marked as finished.
Acknowledging the severity of the situation, Rocksteady promptly confirmed the bug in a post on X and announced the suspension of Suicide Squad servers to address and rectify the issue. The bug not only raised concerns about potential exposure to significant story spoilers but also questioned whether affected players could initiate a new game or were compelled to continue from the point of story completion.
In response to the disruption, Rocksteady assured players that they were working diligently to resolve the bug and initiated maintenance on the game servers. The studio anticipated that this process would take several hours and promised to provide updates once more information became available, expressing apologies for any inconvenience caused.
Later on Monday, Rocksteady issued an update, acknowledging that they had identified the problem leading to full story completion for certain player profiles. The studio stated that they were in the testing phase of a fix but had not yet confirmed if the bug had been completely resolved. The commitment to implementing a solution and restoring the game online as swiftly as possible was reiterated, emphasizing Rocksteady’s dedication to delivering a seamless and enjoyable gaming experience for Suicide Squad enthusiasts.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has had a rough road leading up to its launch, right from the first gameplay reveal in February 2023. The game attracted criticism for incorporating elements from generic looter shooters and ditching the single-player narrative focus from Batman Arkham titles that earned Rocksteady its repute. Suicide Squad was also hit with multiple delays after fan backlash. Originally slated to release May 26, 2023, the live service title finally set a February 2, 2024, launch date.
Meanwhile, publisher Warner Bros. has said that it intends to transform its biggest game franchises into live service titles. During the company’s Q3 earnings call in November last year, CEO David Zaslav confirmed that Warner Bros. games will follow the live service model to become long-term products, with post-launch content drops, season passes and additional DLC. “Ultimately we want to drive engagement and monetization of longer cycles and at higher levels,” Zaslav had said during the call.