Speaking during Warner Bros. Discover’s recent quarterly earnings call, when asked about the company’s gaming business and future, CEO David Zaslav revealed that the company will be looking to license out some of its IP to other, external development studios- which means internal Warner Bros. studios might not necessarily be the ones developing games on WB IP going forward.

“We have 11 studios here, and we have a lot of IP,” Zaslav said (transcription via IGN). “And there’s also a lot of interest among others in coming to take advantage of some of that IP for gaming, which we’re looking at. Because as JB [Perrette, president of global streaming and games] said, we need to get bigger, and the IP that we own and the value that it has in the gaming space is something we’re looking to take advantage of.”

The list of IP that WB has access to is mouthwatering, to say the very least, with heavy-hitters such as Harry Potter, Game of Thrones, Batman, Superman, and many others included. The prospect of those properties being licensed out to developers across the industry – similar to the approach Marvel and Disney have taken in recent years – would certainly be an intriguing one.

That WB Games Montreal – the developers of Batman: Arkham Origins – are working on a new Batman game is probably the industry’s worst kept secret. Something else that was never officially known but has been leaked multiple times is that before that, they were working on other projects that eventually got canned, including a Superman game and another project based on the Suicide Squad property. Now, new concept art has emerged showing brief glimpses a both those projects.

Via @tatlinsky on Twitter, concept art from the portfolio of artist Joël Dos Reis Viegas – who is currently working at Ubisoft, but was at one point with WB Games Montreal – has emerged from both the projects. The Superman concept art shows a view of the Metropolis skyline at night, while the Suicide Squad art focuses on characters, with one of the two in particular focusing on Harley Quinn. Take a look below.

There’s no knowing whether any of these two games will see the light of day in some form of another. Rocksteady have confirmed that whatever they are working on is not a Superman game, while nothing concrete has been heard about a Suicide Squad title in a while now.

That said, Rocksteady’s new game, WB Games Montreal’s Batman game, and the previously leaked Harry Potter title were all reportedly due for reveals at E3 this year, before the show got cancelled. It’s likely that we’ll hear about those sooner rather than later.

Adapting Famous Stories

Superman has a rich history to draw from so why not just follow the core story? Start with his origin as the sole survivor of Krypton, growing up and realizing he has superpowers, eventually becoming the hero we know and love. Superman’s exploits and interactions with the various denizens of Metropolis, including his battles with Lex Luthor, could eventually culminate in a showdown with Doomsday. It’s prime story-telling and would be excellent for an adaptation.

There’s been no shortage of leaks and speculations about the next Batman game over the past couple of years, and the complete radio silence of both WB Games Montreal and Rocksteady has only kicked those up a notch. The former have been throwing out some infuriating teases every now and then, and it’s likely that there will be even more of those in the near future. Before that happens though, an alleged new leak might have revealed some potentially interesting details about the next Arkham title and what it will lead to.

GWW claims that as per their sources, WB Montreal’s new Batman game is going to be a soft reboot of the series, beginning its own new continuity. Attempts had initially been made to develop a direct sequel to Batman: Arkham Knight, which would have seen Bruce Wayne’s son, Damian Wayne, taking up the mantle of Gotham’s Caped Crusader, though that project was eventually rebooted. That a Damian Wayne game was in development and that it was cancelled are both things that have previously been leaked as well.

WB Games Montreal eventually decided to start fresh and begin a new continuity. Their next game will allegedly release this Fall (some leaks have suggested it will be a primarily next-gen game), and that it will kick of a ew DC Games Universe. As per this leak, the game will be shortly followed by a next-gen DC game from Rocksteady.

Allegedly, a next-gen Superman game is also in development at Warner Bros., though as the studio itself has explicitly confirmed in the past, Rocksteady are not the ones working on it. Additionally, the report also brings up other details on WB Games Montreal’s upcoming new Batman title that have been leaked several times in the past, such as the fact that it will feature a playable Bat-family and feature co-op mechanics, or that its story will focus on the Court of Owls.

It’s best to take this leak – and all leaks coming from unverified and unofficial channels – with a healthy pinch of salt. WB Games Montreal and Rocksteady have both been notoriously silent about whatever it is they’re working on, and who knows how long that silence will go on, so whether or not we’ll be hearing any concrete details about their games in the near future is anyone’s best guess. We can at least keep our fingers crossed though.

The talented people over at Rocksteady took a DC Icon and managed to create one of the best series of the last decade out of Batman, and managed to pave the way for Spider-Man by showing that superhero licensed games didn’t have to suck, or be a one-in-a-million fluke like Hulk: Ultimate Destruction. Given the huge success of Spider-Man, it doesn’t take a genius to call a very real future with a Marvel Game Universe that gets just as much love as their MCU, but what of DC? Batman pulled it off, but there’s a rather important name missing here. 

It’s not that people haven’t tried to translate Superman to video games, to…well, let’s be generous and say various results. So why hasn’t Batman opened the way to his bestie getting his own title? Will we ever get to see those highly original reviews say that you can “feel like Superman”? Well, we can think of at least 15 challenges that Superman poses to being translated to a game. Be sure to share your thoughts in the comments below.

It’s a small world after all

We all know that Superman is faster than a speeding bullet. Much like Sonic the Hedgehog, Superman would simply find himself constrained by even the largest of open worlds that we can build on current hardware. As visual fidelity demands of players have risen, the ability for developers to hand create a wide swath of interesting content becomes a bit more limited, and handing that kind of thing off to programs is how we get No Man’s Sky at launch.

Rocksteady are working on something big for a while. Gaz Deaves, a member of the development team recently teased that their next big game will make people loose their minds. But what are they exactly working on? Could they be working on a new Superman game? Seems a bit unlikely as it would be tricky to translate his powers including flying into a game. But this is Rocksteady we are talking about and they’re probably the best studio right now who could do justice to  the Superman franchise.

And this is apparently what they are working on if a report by Comicbook is to be believed. According to the website, the next issue of Game Informer will bring news of a new Superman Game that is allegedly being developed by Rocksteady Studios. The new title will be revealed next week according to the report. The website further states that the game will be massive in scope and will blow away players with its intricate details.

As usual, take this report with a grain of salt. But what are your thoughts on this? Let us know in the comments below.

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. With that in mind, we give you some of the top DC Heroes of all time.

For more exciting features and lists, please click here. Also don’t forget to check out our ultimate list of Marvel heroes here. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more news and updates.

Note: List is in random order

Vixen

In my opinion Vixen is quite the awesome character, because she possess some pretty extraordinary abilities. For one Vixen adopts the abilities of animals. Using her a magical device of sorts, she can channel the powers of the animal kingdom, which means for example  that she can use the accelerated healing from Earthworm, Snake and so on.  She has been a member of the Birds of Prey, Checkmate, the Justice League, Suicide Squad and the Ultramarine Corps.

The Google translation states that:

“‘We will Reveal two brand new games that Gamescom elsewhere one of dem is a major release,’ said one of Warner’s PR representatives to Gamers Globe”.

Warner Bros are already expected to showcase Batman Arkham City: Armoured Edition, Injustice, LEGO: Lord of the Rings, Lord of the Rings Online and Guardians of Middle-Earth, so speculation is predictably rife at what these two rogue titles could be.