Warner Bros. Montreal reportedly laid off 99 of its workers ahead of the holidays and gave them eight weeks' notice.
The development comes after developer Rocksteady Studio announced that it would be shutting down Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League early next year. The layoffs were allegedly announced via video conference, to which the 99 affected workers were invited.
Warner Bros. Montreal To Lay Off 99 Workers
It is believed that the latest round of job cuts primarily affected subcontractors who were working on the Keywords QA team.
The people who were laid off were supposedly given a choice between being placed on a register to be recalled for work or meeting with a counselor for help finding another job.
One anonymous source for Radio-Canada said that they felt stressed and depressed following the news of the layoffs.
They noted that they felt like the entire company just ruined the lives of 99 people. The choice of being recalled for work would reportedly not happen until 2026, according to Games Industry.
Other people affected by the layoffs stressed that the studio's recent biannual meeting that was held in the summer had no mention of redundancies. They also said that management insisted that the studio had enough work to pay for all of its employees.
Keywords Studios is a company that provides technical and creative services to gaming companies that need additional manpower. The company was responsible for working on quality assurance for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
The end of support for the game early next year comes as it was only released in February 2024. This means that its entire life had not lasted even a year before the publisher decided to pull the plug, Engadget said.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League's Flop
The news of the layoffs at Warner Bros. Montreal follows similar developments with other high-profile studios.
These include Ubisoft, Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and many others just this year alone. This comes as the gaming industry is projected to generate more than $187 billion this year.
The fact that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League performed so poorly, with many players criticizing the game, made the development somewhat expected. Warner Bros. Games saw its revenue drop by 41% in the second quarter of 2024 due to this.
Warner Bros. Games expected a drop in revenue because the company did not release anything this year that was as successful as Hogwarts Legacy.
However, the studio had hoped that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League would be able to at least help financially, according to WCCFTech.
