Batman: Arkham ‘returning with Rocksteady to develop’

According to leaker Nick Baker, Rocksteady is working on a new ‘Batman: Arkham’ game, with Sony trying to “moneyhat” the supposed title.

A new ‘Batman: Arkham’ game is reportedly in the works at Rocksteady.

Aside from 2016’s ‘Batman: Arkham VR’, the franchise hasn’t received a more traditional instalment since ‘Arkham Knight’ in 2015, though according to Xbox Era’s Nick Baker, the studio is currently working on a new game in the series.

In response to a fan on X asking which developer should helm the next ‘Batman: Arkham’ title, he wrote: “Not sure which studio people’s dreams is, but I heard Rocksteady are back making it.”

The leaker also claimed Sony was trying to “moneyhat” the game, likely as a way to get the supposed title as a PlayStation exclusive.

After ‘Batman: Arkham VR’, Rocksteady worked on last year’s controversial live-service shooter ‘Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’ and passed the reigns to the franchise to ‘Iron Man VR’ developer Camouflaj for the upcoming VR title ‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’.

The game – which is being developed exclusively for the Meta Quest 3 and is slated to release in October – takes place in between the events of ‘Arkham Origins’ and ‘Arkham Asylum’, and sees the Caped Crusader try to thwart the Rat King’s plan to execute public figures like Jim Gordon and Harvey Dent for their “crimes committed against the people of Gotham City”.

The studio’s head Ryan Payton teased the VR title was “very much inspired” by ‘Arkham Asylum’ and would include plenty of gameplay mechanics first seen in the original 2009 title.

He told IGN: “‘Batman: Arkham Shadow’ is very much inspired by ‘Arkham Asylum’ in terms of scope and scale in terms of also the structure of the game.

“It’s exploration, like you have in ‘Asylum’ – which includes free-flow locomotion, so using the Grapnel gun to zip over onto things, and do the slide, go through vents.

“All those elements that you’d expect from an ‘Arkham’ game; it’s gonna be driven in in large part by the moment-to-moment combat.”