Rocksteady Studios

Rocksteady Studios Limited is a British video game developer based in London. Founded on 13 December 2004, the studio is best known for its work in the Batman: Arkham series. The company is a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Games.

History
Rocksteady Studios was founded on 13 December 2004, by Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill, formerly employed by the previously closed Argonaut Games as creative director and head of production, respectively. Several other Argonaut employees were also hired. SCi Entertainment (later renamed Eidos) was a founding investor in the studio, holding 25.1% of the company's shares.

Rocksteady's first release was the 2006 first-person shooter Urban Chaos: Riot Response, developed using the Havok engine and published by Eidos Interactive for PlayStation 2 and Xbox. After Eidos obtained the rights to make a Batman game in spring 2007, they approached Rocksteady who presented their take on the Batman licence, and by May 2007, they had begun developing the concept of Batman: Arkham Asylum, with full production beginning in September 2007. The game's commercial and critical success led publisher Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment (WBIE) to acquire an undisclosed majority stake in Rocksteady in February 2010. Eidos (Square Enix Europe) retained its 25.1% stake, however it later became wholly owned by WBIE. Arkham Asylum was followed by Batman: Arkham City in 2011, and Batman: Arkham Knight in 2015. Both of which received critical acclaim, though the PC version of the game, developed externally by Iron Galaxy, was panned for its technical issues at launch. The studio also experimented with developing virtual reality video games in 2016, releasing the spin-off game Batman: Arkham VR for the PlayStation VR. Subsequently, 2016 they started working on their first unannounced original multiplayer puzzle-solving game. It was codenamed Stones but was shelved internally at the direction of studio owner Warner Bros. to work on a multiplayer title based on Suicide Squad.

In August 2020, Rocksteady announced their next game titled Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The game had been in production at Rocksteady since 2017, who were taking over development following the cancellation of the previous iteration at WB Games Montréal in late 2016. Over the course of development of seven years, the studio struggled to get the game off the ground, having very little experience in its genre, which resulted in several postponements. A Suicide Squad game had been teased at the end of Batman: Arkham Origins (developed by WB Games Montreal), and in the years since Batman: Arkham Knight was released, Rocksteady had been rumoured to be working on a Suicide Squad game. The Suicide Squad game is set five years after the events of Arkham Knight, and was released in February 2024.

The Guardian reported in August 2020 that the studio had failed to address issues related to sexual harassment and inappropriate behaviour that more than half of the female employees had written to the studios executives about in a November 2018 letter. Such actions had included "slurs regarding the transgendered community", "discussing a woman in a derogatory or sexual manner with other colleagues", and sexual harassment "in the form of unwanted advances, leering at parts of a woman’s body, and inappropriate comments in the office". Rocksteady said to The Guardian, "In 2018 we received a letter from some of our female employees expressing concerns they had at that time, and we immediately took firm measures to address the matters that were raised. Over the subsequent two years we have carefully listened to and learned from our employees, working to ensure every person on the team feels supported. In 2020 we are more passionate than ever to continue to develop our inclusive culture, and we are determined to stand up for all of our staff." The following day, Rocksteady posted on social media what they claimed to be an "unsolicited" letter written by some of the employees who had signed the 2018 letter, disputing the claims reported in The Guardian.

At the end of 2022, co-founders Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill left Rocksteady after more than 18 years at the company and during the development of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. They formed a new company called Hundred Star Studios in January 2024 that will consist of “only 100 industry veterans and emerging talents.” Nathan Burlow and Darius Sadeghian were promoted to replace them.

Rocksteady will continue to support Kill the Justice League through the game's first year and is also assisting in the development of a director's cut for Hogwarts Legacy. However, Warner Bros. Games declined to comment on the future of the game or the studio.