Gotham City’s Caped Crusader has been in the news a whole lot of late, owing to Batman Day. September 21st was the character’s 80th anniversary, which was celebrated all around in various ways, including the games industry. Fortnite announced a crossover with Batman, while the Epic Games Store is also giving away six free Batman games. But it looks like there might be more to look forward to in the future as well.

Warner Bros Games Montreal, the studio that developed Batman: Arkham Origins, recently put up a tweet celebrating Batman day, but people quickly noticed something very interesting about the tweet. It came with a short clip of the Bat-Signal on the front of a building, but some interesting, cryptic images also kept flashing across the screen at regular intervals. They’re easy to miss, but you can take a look at them in the screenshots below. Now, do these images mean that WB Montreal are teasing a new Batman game? They don’t have to, but it seems likely nonetheless.

A new Batman game developed by WB Montreal has been in the rumour mill for ages, with several leaks and reports claiming that the game is going to be centred around the shadowy criminal organization known in the comics as the Court of Owls. Just recently, the voice actor who played Batman in Arkham Origins also teased a new game, while his publicist and Arkham Origins’ writer did the same not long afterward.

Whether or not this ends up amounting to anything remains to be seen. Either way, we’ll keep our ears to the ground, so stay tuned for all the latest update.

@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

Rumours about a new Batman game have been around ever since Batman: Arkham Knight launched in 2015, but in recent weeks, they’ve heated up considerably. Following teases (and then even more teases) by Warner Bros. Montreal – the studio that developed Arkham Origins – the speculation that they’re working on a new Batman game with the shadowy criminal organization Court of Owls as the centrepiece of its story have been quite prevalent, and now, thanks to a new round of artwork that has surfaced online, they’ve heated up a bit once more.

The artwork in question, which shows the Caped Crusader fighting against some Talons – the deadly assassins that work for the Court of Owls – was drawn up by Eddie Mendoza. Mendoza, in case you’re wondering, is currently working as a concept artist over at Apple, but his profile on ArtStation also mentions Warner Bros. as one of the clients that he freelances for. The artwork, which you can take a look at below, was originally uploaded on his ArtStation profile, but was then removed entirely without any explanation as to why (via Reddit).

It’s worth noting that Mendoza did originally mention that the artwork that he had uploaded was just something he had drawn up for fun, but the fact that it has since then been removed, his association with Warner Bros, and all the speculation that’s been doing the rounds of a Batman game about the Court of Owls, has certainly made quite a few people excited about what it could all mean. Either way, it’s best to take this with a grain of salt for now- but if there’s any development on this front, we’ll keep you updated, so stay tuned.

Rocksteady recently made it abundantly clear that they’re not working on a Superman game, contrary to tons of rumours and speculation, and that whatever they are working on won’t be revealed at The Game Awards in a couple days’ time. Following that, fans’ hopes were resting on fellow Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment studio, Warner Bros. Montreal – the developers of Batman: Arkham Origins – to attend the awards ceremony and possibly reveal something new. That won’t be happening either.

Warner Bros. Montreal’s Patrick Redding recently took to Twitter confirm that the studio won’t be attending The Game Awards, before saying that though he knows fans are anxious to hear about what they’re working on, they don’t have anything to share just yet.

That said, there is still some interesting news about the studio’s next project, which has long been the subject of speculation. Valerie Vezina, assistant producer at the studio, tweeted a picture of herself wearing a shirt that bears a very familiar symbol- anyone who’s read Batman’s The New 52 comics will instantly recognize it as the crest of the Court of Owls, the shadowy organized crime group that has secretly ruled Gotham from the shadows since Colonial times.

The interpretation here, of course, is that the new Batman game being worked on at the studio (if that is indeed what they’re working on) will revolve around the Court of Owls, or at least have them featured in some capacity. Which is incredibly exciting news, because stories surrounding them in recent comic runs have been excellent, for the most part. Of course, this is just speculation based on what might very well be an innocent tweet, but then again- maybe not.

Warner Bros. Montreal and Rocksteady aren’t the only high profile studios who will be absent at The Game Awards- Cyberpunk 2077 developers CD Projekt RED also recently confirmed that they won’t be in attendance. That said, there’s still plenty of cause for excitement, with over ten new announcements in the pipeline for the event, including a new game from Obsidian, while a Dragon Age announcement has also been teased.

… We’re not doing the glamorous part of the job just yet. We’re headed down to meet with our WB partners and showcase the team’s hard work and share our excitement. I know how anxious the fans are to hear something… Please be patient! (2/2)

— Patrick Redding – BlackLivesMatter (@Holesinteeth) December 2, 2018

[Redacted], best. DevTeam. EVAR. pic.twitter.com/fUV8WCkDnI

— Valerie Vezina – valvez (@valvez) November 16, 2018

Batman: Arkham Origins developer Warner Bros. Montreal, who also worked on DLC for Batman: Arkham Knight, is in hiring mode. According to its job openings page, the developer is working on not one but two new titles set in the DC Comics universe.

As per the listing, “We are a growing studio with two AAA projects in development focused on expanding the DC Comics universe in the interactive space.”

Rumours have run rampant over what Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment plans to pursue as its next big DC Comics game. While some say Superman or the Justice League, others have pointed to the Suicide Squad. Maybe that has something to do with the movie coming up next year? Then again, it could just be another Batman prologue game.

Which new DC Comics property would you like to see Warner Bros. Montreal? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below and stay tuned for more information.

Here is your chance to meet Roger Craig Smith and Troy Baker, the voices behind Batman and The Joker respectively in the upcoming Batman Arkham Origins. Roger Craig Smith  and Troy Baker will be doing the usual,  meeting fans and signing copies of Batman Arkham Origins at GAME’s Stratford store between 09.00 and 11.00am on Friday, October 25^th, 2013.

If you are not able to meet them up there, you can meet the duo at the upcoming MCM London Comic Con which takes this place on October 26th.

Batman Arkham Origins will be releasing this month on the PS3, Xbox 360, PC and Wii U. Batman Arkham Origins Blackgate which will be made available on the same day as its console counterpart will release on the PS Vita and 3DS.

We recently interviewed WB Monteral, the developers of the game and asked them a lot of interesting questions. Head over here to check it out.

Are you planning to meet the duo? Let us know in the comments section below.

Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has provided more details on the same, which will retail for $19.99. What does that kind of scratch get you in Gotham? You’ll receive the New Millennium Skins Pack, with five Batman skins and one Robin skin; the Infinite Earths Skins Pack, again containing five Batman skins and one Robin skin; the Gotham by Gaslight Batman and Brightest Day Batman skins, which are both exclusive to the Season Pass; Initiation, which lets you play as Bruce Wayne; and a story expansion for the game which has been unannounced as of now.

Batman: Arkham Origins releases on October 25th for Xbox 360, PS3, PC and Wii U. Check out our interview with WB Games Montreal here for more info on the game.

We recently had a chance to speak Michael McIntyre, gameplay director at WB Games Montreal, about everything from including new additions to the gameplay, skipping the next generation of consoles and how certain open world elements will affect your quest.

Ravi Sinha: Despite being released so close to the launch of next-generation consoles – and despite initial expectations – Arkham Origins won’t be on the PS4 or Xbox One. What was the motivation to keep it only for current-gen systems?

Michael McIntyre: Making the game for current-gen consoles was primarily about keeping the team focused and making the most of their expertise. Our team has extensive experience with current-gen systems, and dividing their focus between two generations of console was something that didn’t make sense to us.  We were a new team and a new studio trying to make our mark on a beloved franchise and we wanted all our attention focused on making the game great as opposed to making it available on new platforms. That being said, the game will still be available on many platforms (PS3, Xbox 360, PCand Wii U) when it launches on October 25th.

Ravi Sinha: Continuing the departure from the sequels, Arkham Origins will feature a multiplayer mode. How difficult was it to develop the online component of the game, and find the right mix of elements for competitive play? Also, will the overall scale of the single-player experience be reduced (in comparison to Arkham City) to make room for the multiplayer?

Michael McIntyre: The challenges of making a multiplayer version of the Arkham experience was entirely taken on by  Splash Damage, the studio that brought us Brink and Enemy Territory. They had a great idea for the multiplayer side of Batman: Arkham Origins from the start and that idea survived through all the challenges that making a new mode entails. In the end we now have a very unique multiplayer game that adds a whole new dimension to playing Batman: Arkham Origins.

"The opportunity that Batman’s early career offers for gameplay is focused on the types of challenges and activities Batman faces, rather than in the different abilities he may have. It was never our intention to have the player take on the role of an ineffective Batman."

We think it is a very exciting addition to the game that offers players a kind of experience they haven’t had before in an Arkham game. Having multiplayer developed by Splash Damage while single-player was developed here at WB Games Montreal made it possible to maxmize the scope of each mode without concern for taking focus from one or the other.  We kept in touch through the development of both to keep the look and feel of the two modes cohesive but on the whole the two sides of the game were able to grow in their own directions.

Ravi Sinha: Story-wise, there’s plenty of motivation to go back and explore Batman’s roots in the Arkham video game universe. However, what motivation was there, gameplay-wise, given that players will be taking control of a less-experienced Batman, one with presumably more limited abilities than the one in Arkham Asylum/City?

Michael McIntyre: The opportunity that Batman’s early career offers for gameplay is focused on the types of challenges and activities Batman faces, rather than in the different abilities he may have. It was never our intention to have the player take on the role of an ineffective Batman.

What is more important and more fun is to take on the role of Batman before he started facing all these major villains- at this point in Batman’s career, he is facing common criminals. He is a mysterious vigilante who patrols the streets of Gotham at night fighting crime and corruption. Many of the new gameplay elements we brought to Batman: Arkham Origins were about creating challenges that resonate with this context.

We have a huge city to explore and to bring this city to life we created new gameplay for the player to engage with to make them feel like the guardian of Gotham. There are crimes in progress that will occur around the city as the player explores. There are crime scenes to solve as the World’s Greatest Detective with our new Case File System.

There are also many villains at large around the city which the player can pursue and apprehend for unique rewards. All of these elements come together to create a gameplay experience that resonates with the world of an early career Batman. Where Batman and the player get to see many of these major character’s in Batman’s career for the first time.

"Being a detective is a big part of being Batman. We wanted to expand the already great gameplay in this area to allow players to dig a little deeper. We wanted to create gameplay that would allow the player to feel like detectives themselves and try to figure things out."

Ravi Sinha: Will Origins set up the story for every Batman character, or will there be any additional DLC and story missions down the line? Conversely, can we expect another Origins game if this one is successful enough in order to make room for more characters?

Michael McIntyre: Almost every aspect of the story in Batman: Arkham Origins is about setting up the relationships that Batman has with many of the characters that play a huge role in his later career. The centrepiece for these encounters is of course the 8 assassins, who are hunting Batman for the bounty on his head, but another aspect that makes this era of Batman’s career so facinating are the relationships we see Batman develop with his allies such as Alfred and Gordon.

It was never our intention to have an origin for every single Batman character in our game, but instead to introduce characters that say something about Batman or Gotham at this time in Batman’s career. There are a lot of familiar faces that players will see as they play through the game and a few nice surprises as well.

Ravi Sinha: When including some elements in the game like the Batwing, is there ever a worry that it will conflict with the main storyline? For example, the Batwing wasn’t in Arkham City (for its own reasons) but now it’s in Arkham Origins. How do you balance new additions and elements in relation to their relevance down the line in latter games?

Michael McIntyre: We definitely do pay attention to conflicts like this in the game and try to resolve them in a way that preserves the story while keeping things fun and exciting. The Batwing actually was present in Arkham City – this was how Batman received new equipment in the field throughout the game. So the inclusion of that particular element is not really a conflict and we are excited to have it be a bigger presence in our game.

Ravi Sinha: The expanded crime scenes present a brand new gameplay element to the series. How did the team decide to focus on this aspect of play, and go about making it bigger and better than the sequels?

Michael McIntyre: Being a detective is a big part of being Batman. We wanted to expand the already great gameplay in this area to allow players to dig a little deeper. We wanted to create gameplay that would allow the player to feel like detectives themselves and try to figure things out. Developing this system required a lot of prototyping and going back to the drawing board but each iteration brought us closer to what we have in the game today, which is a very engaging challenge that provides a nice change of pace from the fast-paced action of the rest of the game.

We are very pleased with how our new Casefile system fits into our game and we think players will be as well. There are a few casefiles the player will need to solve as part of the main story and several more that occur throughout the city which the player can choose to solve or not. We feel these casefiles add a nice element of drama and mystery to Gotham City and give the player a chance to explore these elements while feeling like a high-tech detective.

"The Gotham city in Batman: Arkham Origins is more than double the size of Arkham City. This includes two major regions: North Gotham and South Gotham and the bridge connecting them. There is a lot of space to explore."

Ravi Sinha: Whereas Arkham City had a free-flowing emphasis to it activities, with the motivation being to gain more experience points and unlock advanced gadgets and abilities, Arkham Origins segregates those activities more finely into different categories. What prompted this kind of focus? Does it give more direction to how Batman would usually act, if he weren’t wrongly imprisoned in a city-wide prison, or does it go towards further establishing his character?

Michael McIntyre: The categorization of the various exploration activities in Arkham Origins creates a kind of narrative context for each type of gameplay so that exploration activity feels relevant to Batman and not just the player. This means that completing challenges or finding collectibles has meaning for Batman and justifies the rewards we have attached to each category. This makes all of the player’s activities feel like part of the story or at least part of being Batman.

Each category has progression within it as well which provides some structure to exploration and gives the player a variety of goals they can pursue. Having a ton of things to do at once can often be overwhelming. Our hope is that this structure will help make exploration manageable and rewarding while still feeling like an integral part of the game.

Ravi Sinha: Can you give us some examples as to how improving Batman’s standing with the GCPD helps in the gameplay? Also, will there be a wider variety of boss fights this time around?

Michael McIntyre: Batman’s standing with the GCPD is something that we primarily explore through the story in Origins.Where we will see a bigger change is in Batman’s relationship with Gordon himself. I do not want to spoil how this may affect gameplay, but the relationship between these two characters is, in my opinion,  one of the more exciting things to see develop through the story.

We are very excited about the boss fights in our game. The premise of the night of assassins offers many opportunities for memorable face-offs between Batman and the major villains that have descended on Gotham City on this one night. We definitely feel we have a great variety since each fight is tailored to the character involved. Some are larger-than-life spectacles and others are more intimate and strange. All of them are designed to put the player’s core skills to the test. We think many of our boss fights will be some of the most intense and satisfying sequences in the game.

Rashid Sayed: How big is the world/map size compared to Batman Arkham City? And how long with the single player campaign last?

Michael McIntyre: The Gotham city in Batman: Arkham Origins is more than double the size of Arkham City. This includes two major regions: North Gotham and South Gotham and the bridge connecting them. There is a lot of space to explore. The length of the single player campaign will depend on each player’s play style but should meet the expectations of fans of the franchise.

 A big thank you to Kiran from E-xpress Games for setting this interview up.

Did this help to showcase just how Batman would act when not stuck in either Arkham Asylum or Arkham City or was it more pertinent in establishing his character, given the origins nature of the story?

“The categorization of the various exploration activities in Arkham Origins creates a kind of narrative context for each type of gameplay so that exploration activity feels relevant to Batman and not just the player. This means that completing challenges or finding collectibles has meaning for Batman and justifies the rewards we have attached to each category.

“This makes all of the player’s activities feel like part of the story or at least part of being Batman. Each category has progression within it as well which provides some structure to exploration and gives the player a variety of goals they can pursue. Having a ton of things to do at once can often be overwhelming. Our hope is that this structure will help make exploration manageable and rewarding while still feeling like an integral part of the game.”

There is concern about conflicts, especially since elements like the Batwing wasn’t present in a big role in Arkham City but which now appear in Arkham Origins. How are new additions and elements balanced in relation to the sequels?

“We definitely do pay attention to conflicts like this in the game and try to resolve them in a way that preserves the story while keeping things fun and exciting. The Batwing actually was present in Arkham City – this was how Batman received new equipment in the field throughout the game. So the inclusion of that particular element is not really a conflict and we are excited to have it be a bigger presence in our game.”

Batman: Arkham Origins releases on October 25th worldwide.

The game will also feature several new additions such as the 1 VS. 100 mode in which Batman or Deathstroke will face off against 100 enemies. Deathstroke’s abilities include a staff, pistols, bombs and of course, his dual swords though he fights slower than Batman. It has also been revealed that there will be a Hard mode and New Game+.

Batman will also use a new Electric Glove for increasing attack damage and breaking through enemy shields, and it can be recharged by beating up shock baton-wielding foes. Batman: Arkham Origins is currently slated to release on October 25th for PC, PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii U.

You’ll also be able to practice other abilities and upgrade equipment, or just take the Batwing out and watch it rush through the waterfall. Batman: Arkham Origins is currently set to release worldwide on October 25th for PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC.