WB Games Montreal Layoffs

Christmas may be just around the corner, but the atmosphere is grim at WB Games Montréal.

According to Radio-Canada, the Canadian studio is letting go of 99 staff members, in a move that is directly tied to the unsatisfactory performance of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.

Most of the victims are contract workers within the Keywords Studios QA team, which has made a name for itself as one of the primary compatibility and certification testers for the Steam Deck.

A Tale of Surprise Layoffs

An affected worker explained to Radio-Canada that the announcement came as a shock. This summer, during the company’s biannual meeting, the managers had reiterated that WB Montréal had enough work to go around, and redundancies were not on the table.

The Keywords Studios QA crew got word of the layoffs during a video conference earlier this week, following news that Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League would no longer be supported.

The reports say that employees were given an eight-week notice period, during which they could either receive company counseling for finding a new opportunity or grab a place at the register for future work.

It comes as no surprise that some of those affected by the layoffs found the response unsatisfactory.

As much as advisory support is appreciated, the gaming industry is experiencing its most hostile job market in decades, and there is not much HR counselors can do to change this.

Meanwhile, the register for future work is expected to call employees back from 2026 at the earliest.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Warner Bros Earnings

As the year approaches its end, it leaves in its way a bloody trail of games and dev studios that could not make it to the finish line.

Although Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League did not bomb anywhere as badly as Concord, the game still left players underwhelmed.

To add some numbers to the mix, the Q2 2024 Warner Bros earning report says that “gaming revenue declined 41%”, largely as a result of the weak sales of Suicide Squad since its February release.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League had impressive character models and fun mechanics for the most part, but the execution never quite worked out.

The game is set to get its last seasonal content drop on January 25th, 2025, drawing the curtains over yet another title that took part of its developers down with it.