Release of “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” Delayed on Epic Games Store

Overview

The highly anticipated upcoming video game “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” from developers Rocksteady Studios has been delayed by one month for its release on the Epic Games Store. Originally scheduled to launch on the digital PC platform on February 28, 2023, the game will now release on March 28 instead.

Sources at videogame retailers and the publisher Warner Bros. Games have confirmed the one month delay to multiple outlets. The reasoning provided is that Rocksteady Studios needed “more time to polish the title before release” in order to provide players with the best possible gameplay experience.

This delay only impacts the PC version launching on the Epic Games Store. The console versions releasing for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and possibly last-gen systems remain unchanged with the original February 28 release date.

Initial Launch Plans

“Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” was first announced with a spectacular reveal trailer at the DC FanDome virtual event in August 2020. It was positioned as an open world, third-person action-adventure title featuring Harley Quinn, Captain Boomerang, King Shark, and Deadshot. These infamous Supervillians must come together to take down Brainiac after he unleashes a mind-controlled Justice League upon Metropolis.

The game would run on Rocksteady’s own proprietary engine, showcasing cutting-edge graphics and destructive environments powered by next-gen hardware. It featured an original story taking place in the Batman: Arkham series continuity. The initial target release window was 2022 for both console and PC platforms.

Last March at the 2022 Game Developers Conference, Rocksteady Studios formally committed to launching “Suicide Squad” simultaneously across console and PC on February 28, 2023. This would mark the developer’s first major release since 2015’s “Batman: Arkham Knight” and their debut publishing directly on PC.

Epic Games Store exclusivity for the PC version was announced in conjunction with the February release date. This was quite notable given Warner Bros. recent history of launching games on Steam. It was seen as a major coup for Epic Games to secure the high profile title.

Dev Team Challenges

Achieving their technological goals has not been easy for Rocksteady Studios over the three year development cycle. Work began with teams fully remote during 2020 and 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In mid 2021 they shifted towards a hybrid model with voluntary return to the office. But UK government lockdowns late that year forced yet another return to fully remote. Such disruptions can severely impact collaborative efforts required for large scale game development.

“Making sure the entire team is in sync while working on a project of this scale from home is hard. When someone needs to update an asset, that update needs to then be implemented across the whole game by other departments. Doing that when sitting next to your colleague is straightforward. Doing it remotely requires a lot more coordination.” – Anonymous Rocksteady Developer

Reports began circulating earlier this year that “Suicide Squad” might slip from its February release date, though nothing was delayed officially. Insider sources cited difficulties getting the PC version to acceptable performance levels. There were also rumors of last minute changes to core gameplay systems.

By the late summer 2022 milestone reviews, pressure intensified to lock content and shift focus towards optimization and polish. The February date was repeatedly reiterated publicly by Warner Bros. and Rocksteady PR throughout the Fall.

But speculation continued that the PC build in particular still needed substantial work to attain release quality standards by February 2023.

Updated Launch Plans

With today’s announcement of the one month delay, Rocksteady Studios may finally get the additional development time they need to deliver on their lofty goals. The official statements cite “additional polish” required as the reasoning:

“We’ve made the difficult decision to delay Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League on PC by a few weeks to March 28th. The team is working hard to provide optimizations, fixes, and final polish to give fans on PC the best possible gameplay experience.” – Warner Bros. Games statement

“Delaying a month gives Rocksteady the release cadence needed to polish our game to the level fans deserve.” – Anonymous development source

Focusing on PC optimzations and gameplay refinements in the extra month will hopefully allow them to launch in better technical shape.

The console version is said to be far more stable and performant already. So keeping the original February 28 release for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S still seems feasible.

However, there are now questions about last-gen support on PS4 and Xbox One. Getting acceptable performance on baseline 2013 hardware was already an immense challenge with a game pushing graphical boundaries to this extent. The developers may end up cancelling the last-gen SKUs if needed rather than delay the better performing new-gen console builds further.

What Happens Next

With an extra month before release, Rocksteady still has significant work to finalize their ambitious title. There is always the possibility that further delays could happen. But the team will be crunching hard over the next 3 months to try avoiding such a fate twice.

The marketing campaign will need to ramp up soon to rebuild momentum. Another gameplay reveal trailer highlighting new details would certainly help increase hype following this delay.

Longtime fans may be disappointed but mostly understanding. Rocksteady Studios has built significant goodwill with their extraordinary Batman Arkham trilogy. Gamers still passionately trust the legendary studio to deliver with Suicide Squad.

Hopefully the developers can avoid any last minute crises and meet this revised March 28 PC launch. Next February remains a risky timeframe given past challenges. But with strong post-release support becoming industry standard now, this lies in the “when it’s ready” philosophy. Whenever “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League” does drop, it aims sky high to be an iconic open world action title for years to come.

Table of Release Timeline

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