A week after Warner Bros. admitted that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League failed to meet expectations, the game’s player count seems to have dropped to concerning levels. On Steam, Suicide Squad’s concurrent players are peaking at a few hundred only, and it seems that things aren’t any better on consoles.

Suicide Squad player count doesn’t bode well for its future

As noted by Forbes’ Paul Tassi, less than a month after its release, Suicide Squad saw just 593 concurrent players on Steam a day ago, with the number dropping as low as 287. This is alarming for a live service game that needs a robust player count to justify the cost of keeping servers online.

PlayStation and Xbox do not have a system for revealing concurrent player counts, but Tassi noted that he hasn’t seen Suicide Squad anywhere in Xbox’s top 50 for the past week at least — not a good sign for a game that only just released.

Suicide Squad launched to mostly negative reviews, with its PS5 version settling for 60/100 on Metacritic. Warner Bros. revealed in a recent financial earnings call that the $70 game has “fallen short of our expectations,” resulting in its games business seeing a “tough year-over-year comp in Q1.”

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League‘s Deluxe Edition owners have been gifted $20 worth of in-game currency as an apology for the game’s early access server woes. The expensive Deluxe Edition came with the promise of letting owners play early, only for servers to be taken down twice.

Suicide Squad’s server woes make a strong case for offline support

Even before it released, Suicide Squad came under fire for being an always-online game, with developer Rocksteady Studios scrambling to assuage concerns. Players’ fears certainly weren’t unfounded.

Early access players ran into a bizarre bug that auto-completed the game for them after they logged on, due to which Rocksteady Studios temporarily pulled the plug on servers. Suicide Squad went offline again for a period of maintenance. Now, Deluxe Edition owners are getting 2,000 LuthorCoins as an apology.

“Thank you for being one of our first console players during early access of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League,” reads a message in the in-game mailbox. “We recognize that you’ve been patient with us during our initial launch server updates and we’d like to show our appreciation for your patience with a special gift of 2, 000 LuthorCoins. Thank you again!”

2,000 LuthorCoins costly roughly $20.

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The Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League servers are back online following a fix for a game-breaking bug discovered during the early access period. Several players were logging into the game to find they had full story completion before they’d even set foot in Metropolis, and the servers were taken down until a fix was found.

The Suicide Squad game completion bug affected player profiles

Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League entered early access yesterday, January 29, but several players were hit with a bug where they had full story completion when logging into the game for the first time.

Developer Rocksteady Studios took down the game’s servers as they searched for a cause for the bug before deciding it was caused by an issue with player profiles. A fix was deployed and the game’s servers were after downtime of approximately six hours.

Since then, the game has been taken offline again today for scheduled maintenance. Now that the maintenance has been completed, the game is back online once again although some problems still persist. Several players are missing preorder and Deluxe edition skins. Still, at least PS5 players can make use of the early access period; those who purchased the game on PC are unable to play until February 2 despite Deluxe Edition owners initially being promised the same 72-hour early access period.

The game’s issues have only fueled players’ concerns about the game’s always-online requirements. Rocksteady has said it is working on an offline mode that will allow players to experience Suicide Squad’s main campaign without needing an internet connection, but it seems like the game’s “huge” endgame modes won’t be available offline. This update won’t be arriving until after launch and is currently scheduled to arrive at some point this year. More details are promised “when available.”

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will support “hundreds” of build combinations across four characters at launch, according to game director Axel Rydby. Rocksteady Studios also pledged robust post-launch support, and teased a “huge” endgame.

Suicide Squad characters and customization designed around player choice and freedom

Over on Suicide Squad’s Discord, Rydby said that player choice and freedom is one of the game’s core philosophies, and the developers want players to “make each character your own.”

“At launch, we’re looking at hundreds of possible combinations and permutations for builds across our four characters, and this is something we’re adding A LOT to in post launch,” Rydby added. “We’re not supposed to talk about that today though, but I’m really excited for you all to see the cool stuff we’ve got cooking.”

Elsewhere on Discord, Rydby said that Suicide Squad comes with a “huge” endgame that encourages players to master their character. “Our core philosophy for endgame was, essentially, mastery,” he wrote. “Mastery of your character, traversal, talents, enemy types, mission mechanics and, of course, your choice of build.”

Separately in an interview with Play Magazine (issue 36), Rocksteady said that Suicide Squad is “easily” the studio’s “biggest game story-wise.” Following a delay, the title will release on February 2.

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At the start of the week, a plethora of Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League story details appeared online, but now the leaker has admitted that some information was wrong. In a fairly lengthy apology, the leaker called his summary an “awful bastardized retelling” that he regrets writing following the backlash that it caused.

The Suicide Squad story details were labeled “blatantly misleading” by others

The backlash surrounding the Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League story spoilers, which we won’t be repeating here, started when renowned leaker Miller Ross labeled them as “blatantly misleading” and that “the conclusions one naturally draws from them are incorrect.” In the apology, the leaker confirmed the story spoilers were misleading due to the way he went about finding the information.

You can read the full apology on Reddit, although be aware that it still contains story spoilers. For those who don’t want to see those spoilers, the leaker confirmed his information was based on cutscenes from the game but these were incomplete or heard out of context. To make things worse, the leaker only skimmed them for his information. As such, “a lot of the details declared as fact were speculation on my part or me just trying to fill in gaps of my own knowledge.”

The leaker also said that the story spoilers did not include anything that happens during the post-game Season 0 content or any future DLC, especially as the game is set up to be a live-service title. He claims that some of that post-launch content “completely recontextualises the entire story of the game,” although whether that is true is now debatable. He concluded his apology with:

I’m sorry for completely mischaracterising the game’s story, it was not my intention to s*** on this game’s story as I love Arkham but that has certainly been the effect of this leak. If you read the leak, please disregard everything about it because while some of it is true, enough is wrong that it is just overall misinformation.

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League developer Rocksteady Studios released the second episode of Suicide Squad Insider, an ongoing showcase of the game’s features. In addition to looking at the game’s RPG mechanics and customization options, developers spotlighted the Support Squad. This crew of DC characters will assist the game’s antiheroes in their quest to defeat Brainiac and his brainwashed Justice League.

Suicide Squad developer showcases Support Squad in new video

Among the upcoming Suicide Squad game’s support characters is The Penguin, who serves as the Squad’s gun-runner. He’ll allow players to both upgrade existing weapons and craft new ones. His guns come from in-universe manufacturers like Star Labs, AmerTek, and LexCorp, which have different strengths and weaknesses. For example, AmerTek weapons have large magazines, a high rate of fire, and high recoil. Meanwhile, LexCorp guns have very precise recoil and spread patterns. The Penguin can then craft custom weapons in each style.

Another member of the Support Squad is the mad scientist Gizmo, who designs the Squad’s vehicles. Meanwhile, Toy Man and Hack offer upgrades for the Squad’s gear and abilities, respectively. Hack will also let players listen in on the Justice League’s communications, showcasing how Brainiac’s control effects altered their personalities.

Poison Ivy is also returning, though not in the form players might expect. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League takes place after the Batman: Arkham games, in which Poison Ivy dies. Lex Luthor seems to have regrown her, though the current version of Ivy is still a child. Still, she can create biological toxins that apply elemental effects to the player’s weapons and grenades.

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Rocksteady Studios has announced that its Suicide Squad game will be getting an offline mode. However, offline playability won’t be an option at launch, so players will have to wait for a post-launch update for the feature to go live.

Suicide Squad game was rumored to have been delayed because of offline mode

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League didn’t exactly have a stellar showing thus far, with many noting that its live service elements look pretty offputting. Back in April this year, journalist Jason Schreier revealed that the game had been delayed, leading to speculations that Rocksteady was considering removing the online requirement. Schreier disputed these claims, but Windows Central’s Jez Corden doubled down on them, stating that he had on good authority that Suicide Squad was delayed to “remove/rework the always online component.”

It looks like both Corden and Schreier were partially correct. While it’s true that Rocksteady is removing the online requirement eventually, it’s unlikely that Suicide Squad’s delay stemmed from that since the offline mode won’t make it to launch on February 2, 2024.

“We’re happy to confirm, we are planning to add an offline story mode that will give players the option to experience the main campaign without an internet connection,” Rocksteady wrote on its official Discord. “We’re aiming to add this update in 2024 and will provide more details when available.”

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WB Games has announced an upcoming alpha test for Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, registrations for which are open now. Registration doesn’t guarantee successful entry, but you can try your luck with a WB Games Account.

What’s Suicide Squad’s alpha test for?

Suicide Squad is a live service game, and Rocksteady‘s looking to test its online infrastructure. As part of the test, participants will have access to a small portion of the game’s campaign, but WB has warned that Suicide Squad is still in development so the slice that players will experience is not representative of the final product.

To prevent any PR disasters stemming from unsavory videos, WB Games has made the alpha test “extremely confidential” and open to a limited audience starting Thursday, November 30 at 6 a.m. PT/9 a.m. ET through Monday, December 4 at 12 a.m. PT/3 a.m. ET. Participants are required to sign a non-disclosure agreement that prevents them from sharing or streaming screenshots, videos, and early impressions in any form. Participants are also barred from speaking to the media or content creators about Suicide Squad’s alpha test content.

WB Games has gone a step further to add watermarks with unique identifiers to catch violators.

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The Spider-Man 2 release date could have been one of the reasons behind the significant Suicide Squad delay announced yesterday, April 13. This speculation comes from Bloomberg’s Jason Schreier, who not only revealed that Spider-Man 2 would apparently release in September 2023, but agreed that Suicide Squad may have been pushed out of the holiday season this year to avoid competing with other game releases.

There are likely many reasons for the Suicide Squad delay

Schreier responded to a fan who thought this extensive delay could have been due to a game with a November or December release date, given that February 2024 is a particularly interesting month for Suicide Squad to be pushed to. In a tweet, Schreier speculates that “Spider-Man 2 in September could be factor, too.”

As we reported yesterday, Rocksteady Studios delayed Suicide Squad nine months from its May 2023 release window to the new release date of February 2, 2024. The developer stated that this “tough but necessary decision” has been made in order to polish the game.

That said, it’s presumed that another reason for the delay is due to the relatively poor to mixed reactions to Suicide Squad, particularly during the PlayStation State of Play back in February this year. There’s even a rumor from Window Central’s Jaz Corden that Rocksteady is working to remove the always online component of the game.

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Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game showcase in February 2023 was met with an overwhelmingly negative response. Such was its reception that shortly after the State of Play, rumors circulated that Suicide Squad was set to be delayed. Following the confirmation of its delay yesterday, another rumor emerged, claiming that part of the reason Suicide Squad has been pushed into 2024 is the removal of its always online requirement for solo mode.

Will Suicide Squad remain a live service game?

According to journalist Jason Schreier, who first broke news of the nine-month delay, Suicide Squad’s controversial live service elements are unlikely to be changed. Developers have reportedly been told that a delay was necessary to polish the game.

On the other hand, Windows Central’s Jez Corden has heard that part of the reason Suicide Squad has been delayed is to “remove/rework the always online component.”

Schreier and Corden seem to have vastly heard different things, but it’s possible that the always online requirement is being pulled from Suicide Squad’s solo mode, while keeping all other live service elements and multiplayer components in place.

Whatever the case, Suicide Squad’s delay is probably for the best, especially considering heavy hitters like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 are scheduled for release this year.

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