Man, I really want a new Arkham Game
Nearly 6 years after the story originally broke, WB’s Project Sabbath is back in the news with more concept art of the Damian Wayne Batman Beyond game that never was. I thought I had made my peace with it – for a while I really had, but man. I just want a new Batman game.
Maybe this thought is also brought about due to it being the 10 year anniversary of Arkham Knight as I write this (a fact that makes me feel a little bit sick) and in that time all that Rocksteady could manage was Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The game only came out in February but it already feels like a lifetime ago. Probably for the best mind but the tiny glimmers of classic Batman in that game were enough to set the heart. On the other hand, there’s WB Montreal who went on to make Gotham Knights. Admittedly I’ve not played that yet but with the way I’m feeling it may just make me feel worse.
Of course there was an Arkham title semi recently in the form of the meta quest exclusive ‘Arkham Shadow in late 2024. I don’t mind VR but I don’t really want to shell out another £300 for another headset just for the one game. If it was ported to PSVR2 I would absolutely buy it day one mind. The original Arkham VR was okay but nothing to write home about.
That’s the past though, we should be looking to the future. A remaster of Arkham Origins is one that fans often request, just to get the game on modern platforms but I think that ship might have sailed. Same with a current gen port of Knight. If it wasn’t announced on the 10th anniversary then it’s not happening. Where does that leave us? Well there’s two rumours.
The first I deem to be less credible - a remake of Arkham Asylum. I don’t doubt that this is the kind of spineless move WB would do as it would be super profitable. Asylum is probably my favourite of the series and I would absolutely be there day one for a remake (ideally it would mix it up a little, a remake more akin to the Final Fantasy 7 or Resident Evil remakes). Like I say, I consider this the less likely of the two. The more likely of the two is that Sony is putting some money into the development of the next Batman game in development at Rocksteady. Given where we are, this will be a PS6 title for sure. More recent rumours of Sony having an interest in buying Warner Brothers’ game development section adds credence to this. Regardless, It’s truly bizarre that there may very well be a 15 year gap between mainline home console Batman games but that’s the industry at the minute.
There may very well be a race between Rocksteady and new studio Hundred Star Games to see who gets their next game out. Hundred Star may be one of these studios “Founded by Devs from this other studio yada yada” but this time it does really seem like the people here are the team who made Arkham. Their game isn’t going to be Batman and maybe not even Superheroes but if they take some of their scarecrow magic with them, I reckon they could be onto a winner.
So yeah, I wan’t a new Batman game. Check back in in about 4 years I guess. The Games industry is a cruel one.
