More Hints That a New Batman: Arkham Game is on the Way
It’s looking more and more like Batman will be returning to Arkham. Warner Bros. Games is in a bad place right now. Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a titanic failure that cost the company $200 million, according to an investor call, and seemingly ruined the beloved Batman: Arkham universe. It was so bad that they ended the rollout of new “seasons” for the game early, then wrapped everything up in some lame comic that established that Batman and the other DC heroes were still alive, having been cloned by Brainiac or something. (This will be important later.) Then, they announced that MultiVersus, the big free-to-play franchise crossover fighting game that prominently featured some DC characters (Batman, Superman, Harley Quinn, Wonder Woman, and more recently, the Joker), would go offline and drop support, with anyone who had any money invested in it getting a pie to the face. Where does a company in straights as dire as this go?
They go back to the well, of course. There’s been talk of Warner Bros. Games and Rocksteady making a new Batman: Arkham game in recent months, with Vara Dark saying she’s heard from sources that, in addition to a Batman: Arkham Asylum remake, the studio was considering making a new Batman: Arkham game with the voice cast from Batman: Arkham Origins, which was a prequel to the other Arkham games. This makes sense since the mighty Kevin Conroy has sadly left us, and Mark Hamill doesn’t want to voice the Joker without his Batman (which I completely understand). The recent Batman: Arkham Shadow (which was only available for Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest 3S, for some reason) went this route, so it would seem a viable option. But today, Bloomberg ran a story saying their sources told them something similar, with Rocksteady – the developer of three of the Batman: Arkham games (and, unfortunately, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League) – apparently planning to develop a single-player Batman game that may or may not be part of the Batman: Arkham series. This game is several years away, of course, since it’s not even in the development stage yet. But this gels with Vara Dark’s report from her sources, even if it’s less specific. The Bloomberg article is behind a paywall, so you can read the gist at GamesRadar.
CONFIRMED Rocksteady is adding Deathstroke and the REAL Batman, the one we ORIGINALLY WANTED TO SEE, into Suicide Squad Kill The Justice League for the last 2 seasons. It seems they are desperate to get players back in the game but it’s too late.
Warner Bros recently spoke about… pic.twitter.com/MSsv5uozqf— Vara Dark (@Vara_Dark) November 8, 2024
I think it’s a no-brainer that this will be a Batman: Arkham game. Aside from the fact that people love that series (I recently replayed Arkham Asylum and Arkham City, and they’re still amazing), they went to great pains to assure everyone that the Batman from the Batman: Arkham games was still alive. (Well, when I say “great pains,” I mean they released a lousy-looking comic saying he was back, so in truth, they barely went through a mild headache.) If they weren’t planning on continuing the series, why bother? They could have just left it alone and started a new series of Batman games. And regardless, they’d be crazy to abandon Batman: Arkham, no matter the circumstances; they can always retcon stupid stuff from Kill the Justice League that ruined the continuity, and they already did that anyway. The bigger question is whether it will be a sequel to the last chronological installment, Batman: Arkham Knight, or a sequel to Arkham Origins and a prequel to the others, like Arkham Shadow was. I’d prefer a sequel because I pretty much always prefer a sequel to a prequel, and I think Batman returning after the way Arkham Knight ended could be a really interesting story. The biggest reason not to do a sequel is that the Joker is supposed to be dead in this continuity, and my response to that is maniacal laughter because everyone knows the Joker is never really dead. (I think I would keep him out of the game completely to make everyone believe he really is gone, only for the teaser at the end to confirm his return.) But what Warner Bros. Games and Rocksteady really need to focus on is getting the right creative team in place for this game; WB laid off a ton of Rocksteady employees, which is a good start, but the guys who founded Rocksteady have moved on to another studio, so they’re at a disadvantage on that score. Hopefully, this all comes together the right way, and we’re in store for plenty more great Batman: Arkham games down the road.
Let us know what you think of a new Batman: Arkham game in the comments!
***
If you want to know what kind of political leanings movies have or just talk about cinema, check out the movie ratings community Criticless.
Get Your Geeks + Gamers merch here!
