There isn't a better moment to use the phrase "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results" than right now.
WB Games Montréal, the developers behind Batman: Arkham Origins and Gotham Knights, is looking to hire an Executive Producer for its next title. The studio is looking to build "a high-quality AAA game based on one of the iconic IPs from the vast Warner Bros. and DC Comics catalog", which could sound exciting in itself. Besides, things could be even more promising when considering that the current iteration of the DC Universe will span video games, movies, and TV series.
Unfortunately, everything goes sideways the moment the job listing describes that the company is looking for someone with a "deep understanding of the full game development lifecycle, including live services". Oh, boy, this surely won't end in disaster, right?
DC is working on another live-service game, despite the model's disastrous track record
For the time being, it's unknown what hero will star in the upcoming WB Games Montréal title, what genre the game will be, or what type of gameplay mechanics it will have. However, fans are already disappointed with both Warner and DC for being unable to learn the right lessons from their previous games.
Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League was planned to be a massive live-service game with years' worth of content, spanning multiple in-game seasons, a seemingly infinite amount of playable characters over time, and endless missions across the multiverse. However, we all know how the story goes.
Support for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League ended less than a year after the game was released, and it cost Warner Bros $200 million. Furthermore, live-service fighting title MultiVersus was officially shut down on May 30, 2025, despite featuring many popular Warner characters from properties as Batman, Scooby Doo, Rick & Morty, Superman, and more. Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions had a peak of just over 6,500 players, but that number was reduced to 20 at the time of writing this. The worst part? Warner isn't the only company exhibiting this exact same pattern.
Multiple developers have chased after an elusive, infinite-money-making live service title. After all, creating a game from the ground up is no easy task. So, the seemingly logical solution is to build just one big ongoing experience that gets constant support over the years while millions of players come back to it day after day. While this business model is home to big hits like Fortnite, there have been many more failed cases than successes.
Marvel's Avengers was released at a time when the Marvel Cinematic Universe was at its highest after the release of Avengers: Endgame. Despite that, this live-service title reportedly cost Square Enix $63 million. Besides, PlayStation ended any support for Concord just 15 days after it was released. Speaking of which, Sony has decided to cut its losses and canceled many live-service PlayStation games that were in development, such as Spider-Man: The Great Web, The Last of Us Factions 2, a live-service God of War title, and more.
Even Marvel Rivals—which is considered a success—is currently around the 120,000 Steam player mark, which is nowhere near its peak of almost 650,000 concurrent players six months ago. And what about the other games that weren't considered a success? Well, Anthem, Babylon's Fall, Lawbreakers, Knockout City, and The Culling are all officially dead (just to name a few).
There are two big problems with live services. For starters, it's an incredibly competitive market in which everyone wants to participate, and just a few manage to get a piece of the cake. Besides, this business model is just thrown on any game, regardless of whether it makes sense or not. While shooters, such as Valorant and Call of Duty, are perfect for this monetization system, a DC property is certainly not. After all, chances are it won't include competitive shooter mechanics.
There's a running theory that Gotham Knights was originally supposed to be live-service (hence why it has so many loot boxes players need to grind for), and such a gameplay loop proved to be an immense failure. On the other hand, Warner has found success in fully fleshed single-player games, such as Hogwarts Legacy, which has "sold 34 million units with a retail sales gross of 1 billion U.S. dollars" according to recent statistics. Besides, Batman: Arkham Knight sold over 5 million copies, while Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has reportedly sold just 300,000 copies (though Warner didn't reveal the official numbers).
Needless to say, things aren't hopeful for WB Games Montréal's next title, and it hasn't even been properly released yet. With a bit of luck, the reports that Rocksteady will shift back to single-player titles are true, and they can be the ones to deliver a fun DC video game experience.
More from Bam Smack Pow: