As predictably as night following day, the last gasps of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has seemingly resulted in lost jobs. A CBC Radio Canada report says WB Games Montreal has eliminated 99 jobs, primarily among Keywords subcontractors working on its QA team.
One source told the site that employees were informed there wasn't enough work to justify their continued employment during a videoconference meeting on Monday. Employees impacted by the cuts were then given two options at a second meeting: Accept assistance in finding a new job, or sign up for a recall list for when more work becomes available. The source added, however, that more work isn't expected until 2026.
The report says roughly 240 Keywords employees work as subcontractors at WB Games Montreal. While; Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was developed by Rocksteady, WB Games Montreal is also credited for additional work on the game.
The actual layoffs are expected to occur in eight weeks, according to the report. Some employees expressed frustration at the short notice of the cuts: There was apparently no talk of layoffs at the company's biannual meeting in late summer, and sources said they were told there would be enough work to keep them on.
Neither Keywords nor WB Games have confirmed the layoffs, but the situation sounds similar to one that occurred at BioWare in September 2023, when 13 Keywords QA employees working on Dragon Age: The Veilguard were laid off. In that case, laid-off Keywords employees picketed BioWare's office in Edmonton to demand their reinstatement; Electronic Arts and BioWare had opposed the plan because the picketers weren't technically BioWare employees, but the Alberta Labour Relations Board sided with the workers, essentially saying that BioWare was their place of employment and thus they had a right to picket there.
This week's layoff notification reportedly came just ahead of the announcement of the official end of Suicide Squad support after four seasons. Multiple other studios have laid off employees in December, including Ubisoft, Torn Banner, Sweet Bandits, Illfonic, Deck Nine, and People Can Fly; the two-years-and-counting bloodbath that's gripped the videogame industry has grown bad enough that even the notoriously controversy-averse Geoff Keighley acknowledged the problem at last night's Game Awards.
I've reached out to WB Games Montreal and Keywords for comment and will update if I receive a reply.
