The next Batman game from Arkham Knight developer Rocksteady is hiring new staff and the job ads give away quite a bit of information.
After Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League flopped hard for Warner Bros., developer Rocksteady is reportedly going back to what it does best, with a new single-player Batman game.
Exact details are unsurprisingly nebulous, but it’s been described as being ‘years away from landing.’ There’s also no telling if it will be a continuation of the Arkham series (like VR game Arkham Shadow, although that was technically a prequel) or something that ties into James Gunn’s plans for his DC cinematic universe.
There are two details that Warner Bros. appears to have accidentally confirmed though: it will be a multiplatform title (which seems to disprove the rumour of it being a PlayStation 5 exclusive based on Batman Beyond) and it’s preparing to launch for the PlayStation 6 and next Xbox console.
This is according to the industry’s most reliable source of leaks: a new job listing, in this case for a senior core engine programmer at Rocksteady – that was posted over a month ago but only recently spotted.
Admittedly, the job listing doesn’t mention Rocksteady’s next game being Batman related at all (only referring to an ‘upcoming unannounced AAA title’), but that is the common assumption, and one asserted by Bloomberg when it recently reported on Warner Bros.’ gaming woes.
Whatever the game is, it’s being built with Unreal Engine 5 and targeting ‘the next generation of consoles’ as well as PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC (and maybe Switch 2), making it a cross-gen title.
Considering the game isn’t expected to come out for several years, this makes perfect sense. Microsoft has already begun teasing new Xbox hardware and while Sony’s been more coy with the PlayStation 6, it’s rumoured to be launching in 2027 or 2028.
It would be a bad look if Rocksteady’s next game was stuck to what will be last gen hardware by then. But, since it’s unlikely everyone will immediately upgrade to the newer consoles, the studio will want its game on older platforms too, to reach as wide an audience as possible.
Rocksteady is certainly in need of a win. Suicide Squad was clearly intended to be a long-running live service game, with years of ongoing updates, but a middling reception and poor sales led to its plug being hastily pulled and a very abrupt ending.
Combined with the failures of fighting game MultiVersus and Harry Potter: Quidditch Champions, Warner Bros. has enacted a purge of its gaming division and shut down three studios.
Among them were Monolith Productions, with its Wonder Woman game dying with it, and MultiVersus developer Player First Games, which Warner Bros. had only acquired last July.
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