Warner Bros. Games Looking to Rejuvenate Batman: Arkham Series?

Video Games

Warner Bros. Games are sending up the Batsignal. As I mentioned yesterday while talking about the Hogwarts Legacy sequel, Warner Bros. is having a tough time in its video games department (not just there, but also there), with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League bombing hard and losing them $200 million, according to statements in an earnings call. The problem with that game, beyond how bad it is (I guess I should say “how bad it looks” because I didn’t play it, but I’ve seen footage and heard from enough people that I’m comfortable calling it bad), is that it features Harley Quinn killing Batman in what has become one of the most controversial cutscenes in video game history. And since Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League was a continuation of the Batman: Arkham games, they effectively killed off the version of Batman as whom gamers have played through four awesome games, which means no more Arkham. (You have to wonder how many idiots signed off on that.) But David Zaslav wants Warner Bros. to focus on its franchises, and like Harry Potter, DC Comics is a biggie, and no superhero is bigger than Batman.

To that end, streamer and commentator Vara Dark has heard some things from her sources concerning Warner Bros. Games’ plans for the Dark Knight. (These sources told her Warner Bros. would lay off much of the Rocksteady staff, which has begun happening, so they have some credibility.) They have three ideas with which to capitalize on Batman and the Arkham series after the Suicide Squad debacle. First, they’re going to bring “the REAL Batman” into the Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League DLC, along with fan-favorite villain Deathstroke. This was rumored to be happening in April courtesy of Miller Ross, and Vara Dark says her sources confirmed this. I don’t know how that’s possible, given what I know of the storyline, but whatever. Second, Warner Bros. Games “internally greenlit” a Batman: Arkham Asylum remake. And, finally, they’re going to make another Arkham sequel with the voice cast of Arkham Origins. The Origins voice cast has already returned for Batman: Arkham Shadow. Vara Dark also mentions Camoflaj, the studio behind Arkham Shadow, but it’s unclear if that means they’ll be working on the next Akrham game rather than Rocksteady.

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 agree with Vara Dark about adding Batman and Deathstroke to Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League; they’re not going to attract anyone to play that game at this point, no matter what stunt they pull. Even if this does tantalize a few people, who’s going to buy an entire game just to play the DLC? And while I understand why they’re doing it from a monetary standpoint, I do not want a remake of Arkham Asylum, especially after Kill the Justice League. Virtually every time they remake a classic game, they force modernity into it, and nobody likes it, and gamers get called racists or whatever, and it sucks. Besides which, Arkham Asylum is readily available, as far as I know, and it already looks fantastic, so I don’t know how much a remake would add. Just skip it. However, I’m quite intrigued by another Arkham game. I loved every game in that series, albeit to varying degrees. (Arkham Knight is great, but that Batmobile stuff is tedious; it’s not as fun as Rocksteady seems to think, and there’s way too much of it.) And they can easily make a new villain the central antagonist since Batman has so many available rogues in his gallery; I think my vote would go to Two-Face, who has only been a minor villain so far.

But my enthusiasm for a new Arkham game is hampered by what happened with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. Okay, Warner Bros. fired a bunch of people from Rocksteady, but did they get rid of the two guys who replaced the original studio heads? When you bring in a new creative team, and they make the first bad game in the series (and hire Sweet Baby Inc.), it’s not hard to pinpoint where the problem is. So far, the firings we know about occurred in the Quality Assurance team, and while more layoffs have reportedly happened, we don’t know exactly who was let go. So if they want to assuage everyone’s fears, they can either heavily reform Rocksteady, use Camoflaj (assuming Arkham Shadow is any good), use Arkham Origins developer WB Games Montréal, or – and this would be very cool – hire Hundred Star Studios, the new studio the former heads of Rocksteady started. If they do any of these, and the trailers look good, I’ll allow myself to get excited. Until then, it’s safest to assume this series’ best days are behind it.

Let us know what you think of Warner Bros. Games’ ideas for more Batman content in the comments!

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