Big news and controversies continue to follow WB Games’ various studios. From Gotham Knights developer, WB Montreal’s decision to cap console versions of the game to 30FPS, and then the weaker reception to the game upon launch from fans and critics alike, the hits have kept coming as Rocksteady, the creators of the Batman Arkham games, and the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League, have announced some unfortunate news – two of the studio’s co-founders, Sefton Hill, and Jamie Walker, are departing the acclaimed studio.
The news is so big and so important to Rocksteady, that the message didn’t come from themselves, but was delivered by David Haddad, the President of WB Games, who said,
I have some important news to share with you about Rocksteady Studios. Co-founders and studio heads Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker have made the decision to leave the studio. We are very proud to have worked alongside Jamie and Sefton, who have led their talented teams to create some of the best games in the world. From the critically acclaimed hit Batman Arkham franchise to their evolutionary thinking with Suicide Squad, they have been great leaders of the team. Visiting Rocksteady Studios has always been a highlight for me personally – the attention to detail, the energy of the people and a sense of what it is like to be in a high performing studio. They have commited to the highest quality and excellence across all facets of game development while ensuring an outstanding culture of caring for their employess. With Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League nearly finished, they have both decided to leave Rocksteady at the end of 2022 and will begin a new adventure in gaming. We have the utmost respect and gratitude for Jamie and Sefton and wish them all the best in their new endeavour, and like many fans, we look forward to what they do next
Hill and Walker’s tenure at Rocksteady has been almost universally successful. The studio was founded in 2004, and within a couple of eyars the team had already launched their first game, 2006’s Urban Chaos: Riot Response, before getting the early opportunity to work on the Batman license. The still largely untried team blew fans and critics away with the 2009 launch of Batman: Arkham Asylum. The rapid ascent of the studio begun with the 2009 release but didn’t slow down as the team took home numerous Game Of The Year awards for all of their titles, the original Arkham game, as well as 2011’s Batman: Arkham City, and 2015’s Batman: Arkham Knight. In 2016 the team dabbled in virtual reality releasing the PS VR title Batman: Arkham VR, and since then they’ve been working on the upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League.
So what does this news mean for Rocksteady themselves? Two long-term Rocksteady team members, Nathan Burlow, one of the studio’s other co-founders is now set to assume the role of Studio Director, while Darius Sadeghian will become the studio’s Product Director, and development on Suicide Squad will continue with Hill and Walker until the end of 2022, and if the statement is anything to go by, development must be nearing completion.
