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Rocksteady Studios​

Haddad invested heavily in Warner Bros.' next big title, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, which had been in development for more than six years at Rocksteady Studios. Telling staff that it could also be a billion-dollar game, he and his team greenlit TV commercials and successfully pushed for coverage on the Warner Bros.-owned cable news network CNN.

But Rocksteady, the developer of the beloved Batman: Arkham trilogy, was admired for its single-player games and had attracted employees who knew how to make such titles. Pivoting to Suicide Squad, a multiplayer shooter, was an awkward fit that led to attrition and turmoil. Late in production, Rocksteady bosses Jamie Walker and Sefton Hill left to start a new company and recruited former colleagues to join them.

Ultimately, fans didn't have the appetite for another online shooter, and the game tanked. Rocksteady gave up on plans for content after the first year, ending the story with a hasty animation that backtracked on some of the narrative's most controversial aspects, revealing that the superheroes thought to be dead were in fact clones.

Now, Rocksteady is looking to return to Batman for a single-player game, but according to people familiar with the timeline, the new project is years away from landing.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-07/warner-bros-video-game-division-faces-thin-slate-wonder-woman-issues?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy

 

[RetroGamingUK]

Are the staff behind the classic Arkham games still there?

 

[ssringo]

Even if they do it won't be the people that made previous games good.

 

[Humdinger]

Sounds like it will be only a shell of Rocksteady's former self, returning to Batman SP. Bosses left to form a new company, recruited former colleagues to join them, lots of attrition...

 

[Sentenza]

It may really be a case of "too little, too late".
It's debatable if they even still retain enough of the developers who made the Arkham trilogy a classic.
And frankly while it beats Suicide Squad, "going back to Batman AGAIN" is not what I wanted from them.
I just wanted to see more single player games in that style that explored different characters and maybe different settings.

 

[JORMBO]

Going from the Arkham games to Suicide Squad doesn't leave me with any faith the people currently there can make a good Batman game. Rocksteady would need to be gutted and rebuilt by someone with a decent vision. I don't think they can do it.

 

[MiguelItUp]

No one should get too excited about this until we see it in action if it happens.

Are the staff behind the classic Arkham games still there?

I feel like majority are long gone.

 

[violence]

I can’t say I have any confidence in whatever the team is now.

 

[Kacho]

Are the staff behind the classic Arkham games still there?

The founders left iirc.

Honestly if the creatives working on this are the ones that came up with Ms Freeze then I’m not interested.

 

[BlackTron]

Suicide Squad was such a disaster now the pendulum is swinging too far the other way to too much safety. We already have so many Batman games and now they have to compete with the old team making the same thing. IMO they should have made something else...

 

[chromatic9]

Would probably be like back engineering a UFO for them.

 

[Salz01]

Just release Arkham knight with raytracing and 60fps on console. Profit.

 

[Mownoc]

Yes, that's why they retconned the whole suicide squad story in the final update to make Batman not dead.

 

[Angry_Megalodon]

Now, the problem is not about willingness but capacity. Can the present Rocksteady even make a good Batman game? They must hire new writers, just for starters.

 

[Fbh]

Good for them but it's honestly hard to get excited for this.
This is going to be what? 5 years away? And there's not guarantee it will even be any good. This is no longer the old Rocksteady, key talent has left and by the time this is out it's going to have been like 15 years since they last released a proper single player Batman game.

 

[Shubh_C63]

These companies really need to know how to retain talent.
Letting your main talent go to the point your newbie teams are making AAA-Assassins Creed etc is really a bankruptcy worthy management.

 

[Evil Calvin]

Batman is so lame.

 

[adamsapple]

Make that Damien Wayne game people had been asking for a decade ago.

 

[RCX]

Like Bioware and so many others, it has the name but it's not the studio it wants you to think it is.

Truthfully they might've been on the slide for longer than you'd imagine. Arkham City was their high water mark and Arkham Knight, while good, was a step back and might've been a sign of the trouble to come.

 

[Chuck Berry]

Gonna be another Veilguard situation.

All of the best people that made the Arkham games what they were are long gone.

No chance in hell.

 

[hououinkyouma00]

I can't really say I'm excited after their recent outing but maybe it will be good.

Are the staff behind the classic Arkham games still there?

I would imagine quite a few have moved on since the height of the Arkham games but I don't actually know anything.

Batman is so lame.

I find superheroes one of the most cringe things (this is coming from an anime fan lol) but only two have ever gotten my interest. Batman and Captain America. Captain is probably just the roots in WW2, and I think Batman is just because it's overall much darker then most and also just a rich dude with too much money versus actual super powers.

I'm not invested in any of it, but I still found Arkham Asylum and City very fun and very good games overall. I also enjoyed all 3 of the Sony Spiderman games despite thinking Spiderman is lame as fuck.

The only other thing I really liked that was sort of similar was Infamous.

 

[Dr Cowley]

Another ship of theseus that needs to be torpedoed.

 

[Saber]

Impressive that took that long, it just needed a couple of millions lost.
Too bad its too late. The damage is done and the crew responsible for old Batman games are long gone. No way a group of clowns would make games like them.

 

[Gameplay Gods Bless]

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-02-07/warner-bros-video-game-division-faces-thin-slate-wonder-woman-issues?utm_source=website&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=copy

This isn't the same rocksteady that made Arkham Knight literally 10 whole years ago.

 

[Sebastian1295]

Make a batman game where you can choose to have him go over the edge. Let players have a choice if they wanna kill the villain or not in the game and create quests or missions that make batman question his sense of justice and morality which leads to the cops and good guys questioning batman and his ethics as well as if he's on their side. Change it up instead of doing the same boring superhero crap over and over and over again.

 

[lughnasadh123]

Aside from the well received VR game what's even left to tap into for Batman? "More of that" even if the Devs are at the top of their game isn't going to hold weight like it once did. Time for something new.

 

[mdkirby]

Modern rocksteady has about as much a chance of churning out a good game as modern BioWare, probably less. They’d be better off shutting the whole thing down, and then building and hiring for a team specifically to make their next game. They lost the best people and have new people not suited to it or who aren’t sufficiently capable to do it.

 

[MMaRsu]

Too little too late

 

[Bernardougf]

The founders left iirc.

Honestly if the creatives working on this are the ones that came up with Ms Freeze then I’m not interested.

 

[Honey Bunny]

At least they're still alive I guess. Probably shuttered if their next game flops.

 

[poodaddy]

I don't trust the current entity that's wearing Rocksteady's skin suit to be able to produce a project anywhere near the quality of the original Arkham trilogy, so, sorry, but I don't give a fuck what they do, unless they somehow hire back the old staff that made those land mark titles what they are.

 

[SJRB]

Rocksteady is looking to return to Batman for a single-player game, but according to people familiar with the timeline, the new project is years away from landing.

 

[drganon]

No batmobile\ tank this time around, please.

 

[Zacfoldor]

Too late, you waited too late and we lost Conroy.

You're too late and you fucked it all up. /spit

 

[Spukc]

Good luck with SP games
We all know that GAAS is making way more money

 

[Knucklepux]

Batman about to be flying through the skies with a rainbow cape and a shotgun

 

[xrnzaaas]

I doubt they can pull it off without talented devs and with their DEI department intact, but we'll see. It's definitely the right first step.

 

[diffusionx]

WB spent years making a "Batman" game, it was Gotham Knights, it was dog shit. Why does anyone think nu-Rocksteady could make a good one?

 

[Miyazaki’s Slave]

Blizzard part deux.

 

[Ristifer]

Love the Arkham games, but no thanks.

 

[Randall365]

I’ll bet they fucking are!

Ship’s sailed sister.

 

[AtomicStarving]

With that woke devs, gonna be ???

 

[jm89]

Please don't fuck this up.

 

[BigBeauford]

New Batman game!

...it's based on Caped Crusader.

 

[Kenneth Haight]

 

[Kacho]

Blizzard part deux.

Exactly this

 

[captainnapalm]

Suicide Squad was such a slap in the face to the Arkhamverse that I don't want these people near a Batman game anymore.

 

[Spyxos]

Stay away from it.

 

[Bond007]

I mean they have a pretty good template of what works and what doesnt regardless of who remains at Rocksteady.
Everyone was burned out of the Batman games so they pivoted to new things- now we are clamoring for a return. Im good with it and would be excited for a return to SP and hopefully turns out good.

 

[viveks86]

Without changing out the “creative” department, I’m afraid we may get a Batman… with breasts