Suicide Squad reportedly delayed again after backlash

WB Games may want additional time to polish the title

WB Games and Rocksteady have made the decision to delay the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League one more time from May to the second half of 2023, Bloomberg has reported based on a source familiar. Following up on this, Giant Bomb’s Jeff Grubb claimed that his own source familiar with the matter told him the game could be delayed as far as 2024.

Rocksteady, the studio behind the Batman: Arkham series, planned on launching the game on May 26, 2023, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S after canceling the originally planned release in 2022. It’s a live-service action-adventure shooter set in an open-world and has been announced in 2020.

Players take on the role of King Shark, Captain Boomerang, Deadshot, and Harley Quinn in a bid to take down superheroes like Batman, Superman, and The Flash, who have been corrupted by Brainiac in this four player co-op game.

Each of the antiheroes has their own movement and combat abilities with third-person shooting being more of a focus than melee fights. Combat is built around chaining together kills to keep up the momentum.

Gameplay was finally revealed during a recent PlayStation showcase, but didn’t leave a great impression even on players who were excited about this upcoming title.

“Batman: Arkham Knight had stealth, combat, puzzles, investigations, vehicles, multiple protagonists, and a brilliant story. There’s more to Batman than just punching people really hard in the head and giving villains concussions. Suicide Squad looks like it nails those last two points – multiple protagonists and story – but the gameplay shown was entirely one-note,” wrote our own Kirk McKeand, who is a big fan of Rocksteady’s Batman games and was excited about Suicide Squad initially.

While a delay into the second half of the year may have simply been a case of adding further polish or avoiding heavy hitters like Diablo 4, Final Fantasy 16, and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, a release in the next year may indicate a few changes to the core gameplay.

WB Games and Rocksteady haven’t commented on either claim about the delay so far.