Will There Be A New Batman Game?

When the teaser surfaced, the announcement that Batman: Arkham Shadow will be a VR game did not sit well with all Arkham enthusiasts. Why? It's been nine years since Batman: Arkham Knight, the last new Batman game. While January did bring us Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, the game's lack of a captivating story and solid gameplay mechanics made us hardly notice it was even out there. 

Before the release of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Rocksteady Studios experienced a significant loss of high-level developers who were leaving to join this new team. This could be one reason why the game's post-launch performance has been so unimpressive up to this point.

Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker, who were both co-founders of Rocksteady Studios and also served as its heads at the time, decided to quit the firm in October of 2022. So, this took place long before Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League came out. Then, in January of this year, news came that they had launched a second studio in London, Hundred Star Games, and the studio is recruiting members of Rocksteady and plans to hire 100 programmers to create AAA games. A significant number of those developers are now working for this new team that was formed by Rocksteady's co-founders, even though the company is not the same as it was when they developed Batman: Arkham Knight.

Since WB Games and QLOC collaborated on Gotham Knights, Rocksteady Studios wasn't involved in its development, and many played Gotham Knights for Batgirl. We can't help but wonder if Warner Bros. Games was so disappointed with the game's lackluster reaction that they decided to shut down Gotham Knights altogether. Judging by what happened recently with Xbox shutting down four companies, the games aren't important if you're attempting to save billions of dollars. Rocksteady most likely is or was probably gearing up its next game.

Considering that everything must now be a series, it is likely that they had to plan for an eventual series, and WB most likely was not willing to allow that to happen. Perhaps the budget that Rocksteady requested for their upcoming game was too much. Perhaps the proposed game was never finalized. We can only speculate that Rocksteady intended to broaden out, and things went wrong, while WB Games wanted more superhero content—since it has been so successful for them with the Arkham and Injustice series.

Now, Xbox has reportedly inked a deal with the developers of the Batman Arkham Trilogy to create a new AAA game; the title suggests an action-adventure single-player title. This is more beneficial than a full-scale acquisition, especially for a single studio, and it's smart for everyone involved. So, they're returning to their roots, just perhaps not with a well-known IP this time.

Perhaps something Rocksteady proposed to Warner Bros. Games before Gotham Knights. Perhaps a whole new concept, although we'd be surprised if it didn't feature open worlds and stealth mechanics akin to the Justice League games. So, if these rumors are true, then we can expect Xbox to make a big announcement during the Xbox Games Showcase 2024 on June 9th.