Players outraged as long-awaited game is taken offline mere minutes after launch

THE highly-anticipated game Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League launched into early access today, and things didn’t go smoothly.

The online co-op game set in Batman’s universe had to be taken offline less than an hour after release, as a number of players experienced a game-breaking bug.

Suicide Squad’s official release date is set for February 2, 2024, when everyone who bought the game should be able to play.

However, players who purchase the more expensive Deluxe Edition are allowed in up to 72 hours earlier.

The game is launching into early access on consoles at midnight local time on January 30, 2024.

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New Zealand was among the first countries to get Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, as NZ Time is 12 hours ahead of the UK.

Thanks to the so-called "New Zealand time zone trick", many players on Xbox consoles from other territories also managed to get into the game earlier.

As Suicide Squad started rolling out, a number of players quickly noticed a game-breaking bug that automatically completed the game’s story as they logged in for the first time.

Less than one hour after launch, developers Rocksteady acknowledged the issue in a post on Twitter/X, and took the game offline for maintenance.

The developers expect downtime to last for several hours, without mentioning a specific time when the game will become available again.

Players are advised to follow posts on the game’s official Twitter/X account for more updates.

If the situation is resolved quickly, UK and US players may not notice the problem by the time Suicide Squad is supposed to launch in their respective time zones.

The issue is especially frustrating for Deluxe Edition owners of the game, as they have spent extra money to be able to play earlier.

The Digital Deluxe Edition of Suicide Squad costs an additional £30 / $30 over the £70 / $70 price tag of the base game.

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Players in New Zealand and Australia who bought the Deluxe Edition should have been playing by now, so they are already missing out on an important perk they paid for.

As the early access time arrives in more time zones, more players will be affected if the issue is not fixed soon.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is launching into early access at midnight local time on January 30 for consoles.

PC gamers via Steam can start playing at 6pm UK Time / 10am PT on the same date.

If you want to learn more about the concerning trend of expensive premium editions, check out our take on how game Deluxe Editions have doubled the price of gaming.

Written by Stoyan Ovcharov on behalf of GLHF.