Though the Insomniac Games hack and the information gleaned from it overwhelmed video game news for the entire week, it was the second “leak” to hit this week. Shortly before, big plot spoilers for Rocksteady’s upcoming Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League were posted online and quickly circulated. But for as far as they’ve spread in recent days, it may be that some of them straight up don’t even exist in the game proper.
Per Forbes, the alleged leaker who started the whole shebang came forward to say some of the events they described may have been “mischaracterized” or wholly fabricated. What they gave was a “bastardized retelling” of the game’s events from cutscenes they found in Suicide Squad’s files following its recent closed alpha test, and those cutscenes were “incomplete or out of context.” In their Reddit post (you can read here, but has some spoilers), they cited examples while adding those events were either vaguely implied, unconfirmed, or just don’t happen. Further, they admitted those leaks are missing events from the post-game story, along with “something major” that they claim “completely recontextualizes the entire story of the game.”
“I’m sorry for completely mischaracterizing the game’s story,” they wrote. “It wasn’t my intention…if you read the leak, please disregard everything about it. While some of it is true, enough is wrong that it’s just overall misinformation.”
Ironically, the alleged leaker’s post came a day after Rocksteady released a rundown video on Suicide Squad, which confirmed at least one of the spoilers was legit. Even if the other big ones going around get debunked or that twist is as big a game-changer is implied, the damage is done. Most people who’ve heard of the leak are now going to go in expecting the worse, unaware that the one who drew their ire in the first place basically disavowed what they’d done.
For the past year, Suicide Squad has been fighting an uphill battle in terms of its public image. Players were already not enthused about the game as a co-op live service title that requires an online internet connection at launch. It’s unknown what fully pushed things over into active distaste for the game—maybe it’s the developers repeatedly confirming that this is set in the same universe as their Arkham trilogy, could also be that it’s one of two multiplayer games that contain the final performance of the late Kevin Conroy. Either way, the game’s detractors are swinging away at it without a proper reason, while Rocksteady’s catching flak for things that are lacking key context or may just not even happen to begin with. Nobody’s really won here.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League will release February 2, 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
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