Ever since Arkham Knight released back in 2015 and brought Rocksteady’s impeccable Batman trilogy to a close, fans have been wondering when they’ll next be able to don the cape and cowl of the Dark Knight detective.
As it turns out, we might not have too much longer to wait. While there’s been no direct confirmation of a new Batman game, various rumblings have suggested that Warner Bros Montreal – the studio responsible for Arkham Origins – is working on either a follow up or prequel.
Senior game designer for Warner Bros. Montreal Osama Dorias joined in with a Twitter game where developers were encouraged to discuss their current projects by revealing the genre, the theme, and the inspiration – This is what Dorias wrote:
We’d previously heard that Warner Bros Montreal was working on not one, but two DC video games, but we have no idea what the focus of either project will be. While they could be titles starring any of number of heroes, such as Superman, Wonder Woman, or Green Lantern, this new revelation coupled with previous hints all but confirm the existence of a new Batman game.
Again, I have to stress that this tweet alone isn’t enough to serve as proof that Warner Bros Montreal is working on a new Batman game. DC has a rich stable of characters, and it could be pretty much anything. Hell, it could be a third Injustice being developed in partnership with NetherRealm for all we know.
However, it is worth noting that this isn’t the first time a Warner Bros Montreal employee has teased their mystery project, and previous hints definitely point more towards Batman-focused game than anything else.
In late 2018,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. Comic fans will know that the Court of Owls is a shadowy ancient organisation based in Gotham City that has butted heads with Batman an awful lot in recent years.
At the start of this year, someone who claimed to be a QA tester for WB Montreal posted a massive (though arguably in no way credible) leak purporting to have full details on the studio’s new game, which is indeed a Batman title.
The alleged tester said that the game is an open world title called Batman: Arkham Crisis, and will indeed focus on the Court of Owls as the main villains. The leak did also suggest that the game would launch this year however, and given that we’ve seen hide nor hair of a new Batman game and we’re well into 2019 at this point, I’m inclined to pop this particular rumour in the “heavy doubt” column.
From a purely logical standpoint, Warner Bros surely know that a Batman game, or at least a game that involves Batman in some capacity, is going to be the DC video game that makes them the most money as a publisher.
So no, we can’t confirm that a new Batman game is coming yet, but don’t be surprised if/when (probably when) Mystery DC Game turns out to be the Dark Knight, and not Aquaman. Personally, I’d give at least a year of my life for a Batman Beyond game.
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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.