Why were Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League servers taken offline during early access?

Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League's early access went live a few hours ago, allowing players to dive into the entire main campaign a few days before the official release. However, a few hours in, developer Rocksteady Studio took Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League's servers offline.

Given the latest title from Rocksteady is an online-only co-op looter-shooter, servers going offline made it virtually unplayable for everyone who pre-purchased the Deluxe Edition to get early access. Games being taken down offline during the early access period isn't unprecedented, especially for online-only titles and MMOs.

However, Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League isn't a traditional online multiplayer title. Instead, it's a narrative-driven superhero game with optional co-op elements. As such, it's quite concerning to see the game's servers affecting the playability of the single-player aspect.

---

Reasons for Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League servers being taken offline during early access

Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League's early access launch was relatively smooth, with most players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles getting to play a good chunk of its opening section without any issues. However, just three hours after the early access went live, Rocksteady took the servers offline.

According to Rocksteady, the servers are taken down for "several hours" due to maintenance, with the developer promising an update on the server status in the next few hours. The biggest reason for the servers being taken offline was a progression bug that resulted in the game auto-progressing to completion upon logging in for the first time.

This can drastically hamper a player's experience and spoil major plot-related details. To avoid players accidentally stumbling upon spoilers, Rocksteady pulled the servers offline to resolve the issue causing this bug.

However, this begs the question of why Rocksteady did not implement an offline mode for those who might want to play the game akin to any traditional single-player action title. Doing so would've not only made the game playable for most gamers, it also would've prevented this progression-related issue.

Rocksteady Studios promised an offline mode for Suicide Squad Kill the Justice League (Rocksteady Studios)

Although Rocksteady did promise an offline mode toggle in the future, Kill the Justice League would've benefited a lot from that feature at launch and early access. As for now, players must wait for an official update from Rocksteady before jumping back into the game.