Today, a French outlet named Radio-Canada mentioned that 99 developers have been laid off at WB Games Montreal. It’s been said that 99 employees were impacted by this new round of layoffs. However, the vast majority of the employees affected by this round of layoffs were subcontractors hired through Keywords. Keywords is a game service provider that helps connect studios with professionals. They have previously worked with companies such as BioWare and NetEase for their projects. The workers at WB Montreal were in the QA department and helped Rocksteady with the development of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
This news comes after Rocksteady announced that the live-service shooter will no longer be supported as of January 14, 2025. The developers that were impacted by the layoffs mentioned to Radio-Canada that those let go will be made to leave WB Montreal in approximately eight weeks, which is roughly around the start of February.
A source mentioned to Radio-Canada that they were offered the opportunity to be kept on a contact list for any projects that were going to be going forward at WB Games Montreal. However, the source said that the projects may not need any people to work on them until 2026. Although this source has said this, it’s not 100% certain that it’s true, as they had reportedly been assured that WB Games Montreal had “enough projects to work on.”
It’s not a surprise to anyone who knows about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League that it performed poorly. As a result of the game performing so badly, Warner Bros. Games revenue saw a hefty 41% decrease in Q2 2024, which is most likely why Rocksteady decided to pull the plug on the game entirely in January. WB Games did expect a drop in revenue, as they didn’t release anything this year that was as successful as Hogwarts Legacy, but they were hoping that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League would at least provide some padding.
At the moment, it’s a bit uncertain as to what WB Games Montreal is working on, with their most recent game being Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Prior to that, they developed games such as Gotham Knights and Batman: Arkham Origins. While it hasn’t been confirmed, WB Games Montreal is allegedly developing a DC Comics game utilizing Unreal Engine 5.
Looking further than Montreal, Hogwarts Legacy 2 is the biggest priority for WB Games, given the wide success of Hogwarts Legacy. So much so that the game sold more copies than the WB Games Senior Brand Manager expected.
