For the past two years, there has been rumors of a new Batman game currently under development by WB Games Montreal / Rocksteady Games.
The very same studio that gave the word easily some of the best superhero games of all time. I’m referring to the Batman: Arkham Series titles, as if you didn’t know. For the past several years, the studio has also missed appearances at E3 (2018 and 2019), citing they were busy working on something. Before they couldn’t say what, but we all figured it was on the latest Batman game, featuring The Court of Owls. Well, now we officially know this game has been what the studio was working on.
During Batman’s 80th anniversary, WB Games Montreal posted a video of the Bat Symbol shining onto a building. During several segments of the video, images flashed in front of this video. If you slowed it down, it showed some symbols. Which is similar to what took place during Scott Synder’s Batman The Court of Owls arc, where they took over the Bat-Signal, letting Gotham City know that Batman wasn’t coming to the rescue this time.
As for who the Court of Owls are, they’re a big deal in the Batman universe. They were a secret society that controlled Gotham City for generations, and had their hand in everything that took place. Everything! There wasn’t a thing that happened that they didn’t know about or influence.
@WBGamesMTL is proud to celebrate Batman’s 80th anniversary with rest of the world during #BatmanDay #Batman80 pic.twitter.com/4VGz9kBWxj
— WB Games Montréal (@WBGamesMTL) September 22, 2019
Then recently, a new video image was posted by the studio, showing off multiple symbols appeared. Which can mean only one thing! This game is finally happening.
Capture the Knight / Cape sur la nuit pic.twitter.com/yMFXMd4djU
— WB Games Montréal (@WBGamesMTL) September 23, 2019
Interesting enough, the timing of this all would indicate that we’re going to hear and see something about this game fairly soon. But when? Oh, that’s right, Sony’s State of Play is tomorrow and would be the perfect place to show off this game. In fact, even though this is speculation on my part, I fully expect to see WB Games Montreal’s next game make an appearance tomorrow. And if not then, then perhaps during Microsoft’s Inside Xbox, which returns tomorrow at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET.
That said, I am a bit concerned about this, mainly the eventual PC port. The last game in the series, Batman: Arkham Knight, was a steaming pile of shit upon release and for several months following. It’s all good now, but it took years and during that time it was so bad that the game was pulled from Steam and was no longer for sale. Batman’s last PC outing was not a good time for the caped crusader. I can only hope that if this game is actually a thing that we won’t see the same thing happen again.
Ok, WB Games Montreal, I’m ready. Please show us all what you’ve been working on this past few years.