We’re only one month into 2019, and already we’ve discovered yet another Batman video game rumour out in the wild, this time claiming that developer WB Montreal’s DC superhero game is an open world title called Batman: Arkham Crisis.
These latest rumblings supposedly come courtesy of an overexcited QA tester for WB Montreal, who spilled the beans in a Discord server. This was first reported by the Arkham obsessed YouTube channel The Flix Fix.
Rocksteady The playtester apparently claimed that the game is called Batman: Arkham Crisis, and will be an open world adventure similar to Arkham City and Knight.
They also said that the game’s main villains will be the shady Gotham City criminal organisation known as the Court of Owls. Interestingly, the part about the Court of Owls actually tallies with previous reports that WB Montreal is working on a new Batman game.
Just a few months ago, Montreal assistant producer Valerie Vezina tweeted a picture of a T-shirt adorned with a logo that looked very much like the the Court of Owl’s insignia, while also teasing that she couldn’t yet reveal what she was working on.
We’d also previously heard that WB Montreal is working on at least one video game set in the DC universe, while another WB Montreal dev said they were working on a AAA open world game in Unreal Engine 4.
[Redacted], best. DevTeam. EVAR. pic.twitter.com/fUV8WCkDnI
— Double V (@valvez) November 16, 2018
The QA tester went on to claim that the game has been in development for two years, and will launch this year. A reveal is planned for March, and they’re aiming for a Halloween release, though it’s suggested this could be pushed back to November.
Other tidbits include that the game will allegedly include a day/night cycle, and feature a map that’s 1.7 x bigger than GTA V. This part I find a little hard to swallow, but there’s also talk of the Batwing being included as mode of transport, so a bigger map could work out if this is the case.
Co-op multiplayer is said to be available for certain side missions, and both the side quests and main story are apparently now much more complex than we’ve seen in previous Arkham games.
Finally, you’ll either be deeply upset or intensely relieved to hear that Riddler trophies are being done away with in favour of “31 complex challenges.”
Do take all of this with a pinch of batsalt for now, but if both this and the recent alleged Harry Potter leaks turn out to be true, I think WB might need to reassess how they select QA testers.
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Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.