Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League apologises for early access server stumble by giving players a pat on the back and $20 worth of premium currency

An image of the new Joker from Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a younger, camper take on the classic character.
(Image credit: Rocksteady Games)

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League has dropped into a brief 72-hour early access period for Deluxe Edition owners—or at least that was the plan. A bug that accidentally credited players with full, top-to-bottom completion as soon as they launched the game forced Rocksteady to pull its servers down for around six hours, alongside another hour-long maintenance period.

Suicide Squad costs $69.99, while the Deluxe Edition costs $99.99. If you shell out for the pricer version you're also getting a premium token for a battle pass and some outfits, but let's be real—most people probably bought it to sneak in the door 72 hours early. Having seven of your 48 hours of exclusive gaming time lost to an unforeseen bug kinda sucks (I shaved off 24 hours for three nights of sleep, which is a hair optimistic).

As spotted by VGC, Rocksteady addressed the downtime and offered a make-good via an in-game announcement, which reads: "We recognize that you’ve been patient with us during our initial launch server updates and we’d like to show our appreciation for your patience with a special gift of 2,000 LuthorCoins. Thank you again!"

Two thousand LuthorCoins—that's a little on the nose, but Lex would get into cryptocurrency—is worth about $20. Which is around 2/3rds of the Deluxe Edition pre-order in terms of lost "value" for Rocksteady. Though it's fake game-money used to buy digital cosmetics, so it hasn't cost the studio anything (unless the Time Value of Money applies to LuthorCoins, in which case… I don't know, ask an economist, or Lex Luthor. He invented the damn things). 

Standard bundles in Suicide Squad cost 1,000 or 1,100 coins at the time of writing, so you'll be able to grab two with your LutherCoin windfall. Legendary skins are just out of reach at 2,400 coins—though it ought to be noted that a 'legendary skin' is just one skin with all of its variants unlocked, according to some sleuthing by my fellow staff writer Morgan Park.

(Image credit: Rocksteady)

It's a token gesture for Deluxe Edition owners, though I'd imagine it's appreciated. Live service launches are always messy, and I do think this debacle is (as our UK online editor Fraser Brown noted) a sign that games ought to have an offline mode. It's also a cautionary tale: dangling early access as a way to sell your deluxe edition is a bad idea.

If you're going to insist on having your game be always-online—which Rocksteady will thankfully be walking back—there's no way to guarantee server stability or bug-free experiences when the thing launches. It's as they say: The only three certainties in life are death, game-breaking bugs, and taxes.

Harvey Randall
Staff Writer

Harvey's history with games started when he first begged his parents for a World of Warcraft subscription aged 12, though he's since been cursed with Final Fantasy 14-brain and a huge crush on G'raha Tia. He made his start as a freelancer, writing for websites like Techradar, The Escapist, Dicebreaker, The Gamer, Into the Spine—and of course, PC Gamer. He'll sink his teeth into anything that looks interesting, though he has a soft spot for RPGs, soulslikes, roguelikes, deckbuilders, MMOs, and weird indie titles. He also plays a shelf load of TTRPGs in his offline time. Don't ask him what his favourite system is, he has too many.

With contributions from
Read more
Harley Quinn looks pensive
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is now officially finished as its final update goes live
The Joker as he appears in a trailer for fighting game Multiversus
The true victims of Multiversus closing are the people who bought that $100 Founder's Pack
Mister Fantastic giving a thumbs up
Marvel Rivals is giving away 200 units to everyone as an apology for the server outages, and players are very happy: 'I literally made 200 units in my sleep'
Batman broods
Rocksteady is looking to make a new singleplayer Batman game, but Warner's Wonder Woman game is struggling
Helldivers 2
Arrowhead’s CEO got a call from PlayStation when he said players could save their money and wait to buy Helldivers 2 until the servers were fixed: They ‘asked me what the f*** I’m smoking’
Tasmanian Devil
Multiversus director addresses fans angered by its upcoming closure: 'You're entitled to what you say and think, but when there are threats to harm it's crossing the line'
Latest in Action
The First Berserker: Khazan review - Blade Phantom
How to claim The First Berserker: Khazan pre-order bonus and deluxe edition DLC
gta 6 trailer
Publishers 'don't want to be anywhere near' Grand Theft Auto 6 when it launches: 'It's proving to be very stressful'
An image of a Helldiver from Helldivers 2 shooting at a red dragon from Dungeons & Dragons.
'Ok, so dragon builds are a thing now': galaxy-brained Helldivers 2 player incinerates a bile titan with a hover pack and a flamethrower
Assassin's Creed Shadows promo image
Ubisoft scores a legendary ratio against Elon Musk on his own platform—which hopefully marks a final end to all the Assassin's Creed Shadows' culture war nonsense
Assassin's Creed Shadows immersive mode - Naoe holding a tanto in her hand as two guards fall to the ground behind her.
Assassin's Creed Shadows' first hotfix addresses stability issues and a photo mode crash
A plastic duck dressed like a circus weightlifter
The 5th highest-rated game on Steam in 2022 is back with a multiplayer sequel
Latest in News
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'