The outlook on Suicide Squad and Skull and Bones is tepid – is this the end of the live service craze?

In February, we’re getting two games that explicitly position themselves as ongoing, live service games. Releasing exactly two weeks apart. Both games have been in development for longer than you’d expect – and certainly longer than usual for their respective teams. They’ve both been delayed a few times, though one has a clear lead over the other (and most games) there.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League comes out February 2. Two Fridays later, Skull and Bones follows. But something about how the two games are perceived in this pre-launch period doesn’t quite line up with what we’ve seen with similar games in the past.

The problem, really, is that it’s hard to pinpoint exactly why each game is enshrouded in this negative cloud. Sure, we can go back and look at player reaction at reveal, and chart a map of how sentiment has shifted (or hasn’t) in the weeks and months since. We could even analyse what mistakes could’ve been avoided or how certain things could’ve been communicated better, but none of that really leads to a compelling conclusion.