Free Villains, Weapons, Events Set for Suicide Squad PS5 After Launch

Nah, no thanks.

I was really impressed with what I saw of this earlier, compared to the mess before. I don’t know if I’d pre order it but I’m definitely on the side of picking this up at launch depending on reviews.

Free events usually means if you’re not there from day one and keep playing forever then you’re bound to miss something. My solution: don’t buy the game in the first place.

I really feel for these guys now. Watching them
almost try to convince themselves that they are releasing a good game, whilst talking from a teleprompter is painful to watch. I genuinely think that this game isn’t going to be bought by the masses at all, no matter what they do or how many free incentives they announce. They probably would have a hard time giving it away for free right now, gone is the power that Rocksteady once had on all things DC. The more people know about this game and what they plan to achieve with it, the less that it’s going to sell or be picked up. My particular friends group were all in on a Suicide Squad Coop game. Then they saw the State of Play that featured it and now none of them are interested in it. The trailer from the other day hasn’t changed their minds in the slightest. I am definitely the biggest DC fan from our group too, but I am going to pass also. Live Service games outside the dominant players that rule right now just crash and burn.

Reminds me of my experience with Shadow of War when it came out. Adding live service elements to a game that absolutely does not need it. It killed the game for me for Shadow of War until they dismantled the shop and everything about the game that was built around it.

They made a system where the boss orcs would have procedurally generated abilities to promote buying in-store boosts to beat them. I remember being in the last bit of the game, taking over the castles (forget what they're called now) and went to face the boss orc. The boss orc was given resistance to every single element, auto-beast killing abilities, fast auto-healing, etc. It was basically invincible and absolutely wrecked the experience for me. I'm not gonna lie, I'm expecting, not quite that experience, but a similar experience.

Bailed on this the minute it was revealed to be a dumpster fire.

@Bionic-Spencer It really is something to see. Watching them try to convince the masses that their game is worth the investment when it's coming out at the same time as other massive games with features people actually want

Might be a fun squad game to grab at 80% off after it inevitably flops but this game and their rollout scream soulless corporate shlock that gamers are finally rejecting.
"We have FREE events! We have skins! Constantly evolving! More FREE content with your full price purchase!'

Comments should be turned off on these sites. It just shows how negative people are. If you don't want to like a game, fine, then don't play it. But all this negativity in the gaming community is just horrible.

I guess bribing is one way of trying to get interest up but I'm afraid this game will suffer a similar fate to Gotham Knights in that it will be forgotten by the end of release day

Sounds like the Avengers game. Or that EA game that dropped out of existence pretty quick.

@NarutosBiggestFan Well if you make a game to provide an authentic enjoyable experience, the public will buy. If you make a game using an already loved and established property with the intent of making money for share holders that will be forgotten quick🤔

I wish I had a term for this.

When I played the Arkham games. Batman felt like he was a part of the world.

When I play Spider-Man, they feel like they are part of their world.

The same with GTAV, RDR2, The Witcher, etc.

This game, gives me vibes of a more vertical Agents of Mayhem, and that time of game, the characters feel like they are more in an arena, than part of a world and this type of game tends to bore me quickly.

Edit: I think I figured out a term.

Hero Hoard Mode Shooter

@NarutosBiggestFan Negative or critical? It's perfectly OK for people to get upset if they feel as though people trying to sell them something are phoning it in or checking off the "do this to make loads of money" boxes. It is these critical comments and disappointment from the consumer that signals to the developers that what they're doing may need to be re-examined.

@NarutosBiggestFan I completely agree mate. The negativity and vitriol on specialist sites is toxic. Fortunately the rest of the world ignore these people, and from what I read most of the time, miss nothing.

Free crap is still crap.

@NarutosBiggestFan @Olliemar28 Instead of criticising people for criticising a game (on a gaming news site at that!), maybe just express what you like about the game, so that some of us may come to change their mind, or at least see what they don't right now.

It's normal, healthy even, for people to express their frustration when they feel they are being manipulated or let down, isn't it?

@Olliemar28 You must be a Warner Bros executive

What is this, a mobile game type bait?

Live-service! Deluxe Edition! DLC! Early-Access! Battle-Pass! This game just screams "I was designed by managers and shareholders"

@Olliemar28 @NarutosBiggestFan You’re correct, in the fact that this game could turn out to be very good, and that people are a bit hyperbolic when it comes to the disdain directed towards it.

But there are many reasons for this backlash, and why reading the comment sections can feel so negative.

For one, it’s Rocksteady developing the game. They made three beloved single-player Batman games in the past, and people are disappointed that they’re not doing the same with another DC property.

Adding to that is the development time it took to release it. After the many years since their last game, people were really anticipating something special from Rocksteady, but were presented with a generic-looking co-op live-service shooter that doesn’t take advantage of the characters they’re using. Any fandom — in this case DC fandom, but it could be any — is going to be more critical of how their favourite property is being used.

Also, there’s live-service fatigue. So many live-service games are crashing and burning these days because the market is so full of them that none can get a foothold over the more established games that are already out. Again, a result of the long development cycle that started way back when the live-service model was booming.

And finally — in terms of the overly negative comments here on this site — you have to consider the demographics of the people who visit an enthusiast website and bother to sign up to comment on an article. Very more likely to be hardcore capital “G” Gamers (and I don’t necessarily mean that to be the negative connotations that term elicits), that have specific tastes when it comes to video games, and are more likely to be fans of more niche varieties of games — as opposed to the FIFA/Call of Duty crowd that a game like this might target. In other words, a very small sample size compared to the majority of game-playing people.

All of that adds up to a game like this — which may end up to be a great game for the genre that it’s in! — getting dunked on heavily, due to expectations and tastes.

@Olliemar28 “Can I ask how people might have felt manipulated?”

Not the original poster here, but I’ll give you my interpretation anyway.

All of the things that are outlined here — the “free” content, Deluxe Edition, Battle Pass — are all forms of audience manipulation.

The free content is designed to keep people returning to the game, even after they’ve played enough of the game already. Instead of having that content in the game from the start, they drip-feed it over time, to get people to stick with the game and get roped into other monetization.

The Deluxe Edition pulls people in by sectioning off certain content (that’s already been developed) and getting earlier access to the game, in order to convince people to spend an extra $30 by playing on their FOMO tendencies.

The Battle Pass sucks people in by offering more rewards (or exclusive rewards) more quickly than when you don’t pay for it, again triggering a sense of FOMO.

All of these are specific marketing and monetization strategies are designed to make profit by manipulating people to spend more money than the initial launch investment. In a game with the base price of $70 USD ($90 CAD). Those tactics are already scummy (and even more aggressive) in free-to-play games, but are especially bad in a game that already has a premium price.

When you add in people that are less-informed, neurodivergent, or literal children, you see how publishers take any advantage they can to get maximum profit from as little as possible effort.

Free? Lol
So there will be paid ones?

@Impossibilium @Olliemar28 For me, I'm wondering if people kept up with why people suddenly turned on this game. Because it's not just blind fanboy hate. Two trailers ago during a Sony state of play, they released an entire display for the game which rubbed people the wrong way.

Prior to that, I was ex-TREMELY hyped over Suicide Squad. But once they showed the video with a huge chunk of, "And once you buy the game, you can buy the battle pass! Look at all of these weapons and skins you can buy for Harley Quinn! And on top of that, we'll keep rolling out updates to buy even more!" Couple that with the fact that they have a superhero game where the guy known for throwing boomerangs, the girl known for melee and explosives, and the giant shark man who brawls and eats people would all be fighting with guns, it really seems as though there's little love for the franchise they're taking on and just dollar signs in their eyes. It's VERY similar to the Avengers backlash. People aren't just being negative for no reason. It was a game people were very much looking forward to, then the developers announced that they'd be inserting more ways for people to spend their money.

@Olliemar28 Of course you can, and maybe "manipulated" wasn't the best term (English is not my native language).

What I meant is that, early on, we were sold on this game as the great return of Rocksteady to the Arkham franchise, with an incredible premise : be the bad guys against the full Justice League. This was made to be salivating for fans.
But what we got is what looks like a very generic co-op shooter live service game, everything that most of the Arkham fans would dislike. This created a justified frustration in the community, and nothing has been shown since to help us think Rocksteady and WB understand what fans want. This is not a side game like Gotham Knight, this is the next big Rocksteady game, and it should have been better.

Hence the very heavy, and in my opinion fully justified, criticism and the feeling of being "manipulated" (please help me find a better term if you think this one doesn't fit).

I do hope they support it better than Gotham knights.

@Impossibilium I don't play Any live service games. So for me, it doesn't matter. If All you play is live service games, then it's your own fault. I am just sick of people only expressing the bad things instead of anything good in this community (this community meaning gaming in general and not just this site or playstation). It's like people try to find something bad about everything instead of just liking something for what it is. This game is a new concept and while it may not work for most, it will be nice for others.

Nothing like "events" in my single player game...

@NarutosBiggestFan @Olmaz By the way, you've criticised users because of their "negativity", and got multiple replies detailing in length why these users thought the game was a let down and viewed negatively.

But we're still waiting for what exactly you see in this game as positive... "This game is a new concept" is enough, as you'd have to explain how another hero based co-op live service shooter is anything "new".

@Olmaz It's a Superhero game. It looks good visually. It seems to be pretty smooth and polished. The story seems to be intriguing. It is action packed... What else do you need? Just play games to play them and enjoy them for what they are. Why do people have to dig so deep to find all the bad things?

@NarutosBiggestFan Because here the bad is not so deep for a lot of people. To many people, the fact it's a "superhero game" is not enough anymore after the stellar examples we got in the last 10 years.
To many, this game looks very bland and generic in its design (pseudo-realistic with no flair and very neutral costume designs).
The story may be its best feature, and I said so before, but we have had too many examples of good stories lost in bad storytelling, especially with games that mix too much game mechanics or are pure live service.
As for the action, to many again, this looks very repetitive and uninspired, where characters that could have brought diverse and original gameplay are just a coat of paint over archetypal classes we've seen countless time before.

These are opinions, and opinions can be negative. Voicing our criticism of what we are showed is paramount if we want the industry to change and hear in another direction than the one it's taken.

Why are you so bothered by people simply voicing their opinion, especially after seeing long detailed posts by multiple users showing these opinions were well thought and constructed?