It was recently announced by Rocksteady themselves that the developer will be skipping E3 this month due to being hard at work on their next game – whatever that may be (please be Justice League).
Although this is depressing news and has completely shafted one of my earlier predictions of a big Rocksteady announcement, it doesn’t mean I’m completely giving up hope on some bat related news. Keeping oddly quiet through all of this is parent company WB Interactive and maybe more importantly WB Games Montreal, the studio famous for the Arkham spin-off – Batman: Arkham Origins.
There have been rumours going around for a while now that yes, the Arkham series is supposedly finished but WB Interactive are not done with the dark knight just yet.. and who can blame them!? Another stand alone Batman game on the current generation of consoles would be welcomed with open arms by fans across the globe. There have even been talks of a potential Court of Owls game in the works which I imagine would not be directly part of the Arkham series but would certainly be the same Batman within the same Rocksteady universe.. much like Batman: Arkham Origins.
They say that history repeats itself and that’s what I’m hoping for at E3 this year. Origins is often the forgotten child of the Batman games on PS3 but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t important or in fact bloody brilliant! It served as a great game in its own right but also as something to tied us over before the release of Arkham Knight on the PS4 and this is what I’m hoping happens again. With Rocksteady not being ready to announce their next game, we can all but confirmed that whatever the game is, we won’t be seeing it on PS4, meaning that outside of remasters and telltale games there has only been one stand alone Batman game released on this generation and that’s not good enough. This is where we need the help of WB Games Montreal once again to feed our bat cravings before moving on to the next generation of consoles.
So will it be announced at E3? Well if this game is actually in development in real life and not just my dreams then yes, it has to happen now doesn’t it? There’s really no time left before all future announcements become exclusive to PS5 and whatever the hell Microsoft are doing and at that point we might as well start getting hyped for Rocksteady’s next project.
Let’s address these Court of Owls rumours. If WB want a compelling story for fans then this is a fantastic choice in my opinion. It’s a compelling story and the first big arc to have taken place for Batman in DC’s New 52. It’s fresh, exciting and although been seen on the likes of TV show Gotham and briefly during Batman’s Telltale series, would still be a story that is not overly well known outside of a hardcore fan base. I think the story choice will be important because let’s be honest here, they’ll hardly be reinventing the wheel when it comes to the Arkham gameplay and that is just fine!
Again I look towards Arkham Origins, other than a few tweaks there really wasn’t much to separate it from its predecessors but given how damn good those games are, it didn’t matter. And if they were to go in that direction again then it still wouldn’t matter. Montreal Games being the little brother to Rocksteady is an obvious advantage when it comes to being able to use the exact same game engine that is already well loved by fans and that is certainly what they would do again. Basically Arkham Knight with a new story? Count me in! I don’t mean to make it sound like glorified DLC as I don’t expect it to be that (though WBMG have shown they can also do that very well!), all I’m saying is if it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
Well now I’ve gone and done it, I’ve bloody well convinced myself it’s happening! It’s worth noting that as things stand there is no scheduled press conference for WB Montreal but that doesn’t stop them showing off the potential game on something like the Xbox conference. Now all we can do is wait and see. Believe me if this game is announced then you will be hearing from me again very soon!
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