The early release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is here, and it’s not going well. Rocksteady Studios and WB Games have announced that the game’s servers are going to be temporarily taken offline, rendering the game completely unplayable.
There’s been no shortage of drama surrounding the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, from the many delays to the games-as-a-service aspect, but it’s the game’s always-on requirement that is at the heart of its current problems.
Rocksteady’s Arkhamverse action game is set to get an offline mode sometime after release, but in its current state, it requires you to remain connected to the internet. Try to play it offline or with the servers down, and you’ll be denied access to the game you’ve paid $70 to own.
Related: All Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League Voice Actors & Cast List
Why does that matter right now? Because there’s a bug in the game that’s accidentally unlocked the whole of the story, and, to fix it, Rocksteady/WB is taking the game’s servers down for maintenance to fix it That’d be less of an issue if the game had an offline mode, but as the official Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League account explains, “During this time the game will be unavailable. We expect this to take several hours and will update once we have more information.”
That could stick in the craw of the game’s current players. The game’s “official” release date is February 2nd, but those who purchased the Deluxe Edition of the game can play it 72 hours early. Now, some are losing a chunk of that “early access” because the game can’t function offline.
It was up for just an hour (via GamesRadar) before players in Australia/New Zealand spotted the issue. Rocksteady did, to its credit, act fast in addressing the initial issue. But it’s a poor start for a game that’s trying to prove there’s life beyond the Batman: Arkham trilogy.