There are few series in video game history as consistently great as the Batman: Arkham games. Rocksteady's trilogy, inspired by the Arkham Asylum comic books, were transporting, immersive, and bold, still standing today as among the greatest stories in Batman history ever told. And now it looks like we may be finally getting a new one. But it may not be developed by the studio we want.
Fans of the series know that the main three titles – Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight – were all made by Rocksteady Studios and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. There was a fourth console game in the Arkham franchise that was not received quite as well as the three others called Arkham Origins. This prequel title was developed by WB Montreal, and is seen as the runt of the pack. WB Montreal has been quietly teasing a new Batman game for a little while now. This week, for example, we saw a social media post of a mysterious image that resembles a Gotham City Police Department badge.
Fans have been anticipating that this new title would be at least somewhat informed by the recent Court of Owls comic arc. That story sees Batman being hunted by a secret society (Owl-inspired) that kidnaps children and turns them into assassins. But contrary to what you may be reading around the internet, that's not confirmed in the slightest. It's based on interpretations of logos in a cryptic video that WB Montreal tweeted back in September 2019 with a caption that read "Capture the Knight."
These images could be signalling the Court of Owls, but they could also represent Ra's Al Ghul's League of Assassins. Or it could be another villainous entity entirely. Keep in mind – there are a lot of Batman villains.
Ra's Al Ghul has appeared in the Batman: Arkham games before. In fact, he played a pretty big part in them. But those were the Rocksteady titles. WB Montreal may be kicking off a new Bat series entirely. And to make things even more confusing, Rocksteady is apparently still working on a new title based on a DC superhero. And though everyone believes the game to be all about Superman, it's definitely not Superman. At least, they keep saying it's not Superman.
With Insomniac's Spider-Man game making such a big splash, and the upcoming Avengers title releasing from Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics, the industry is definitely primed for video games in the comic book genre. It's a genre that the Batman: Arkham city basically re-invented.
Dom Nero is a staff video editor at Esquire, where he also writes about film, television, tech, and video games.
