Rocksteady Studios seems like they might be gearing up to announce their next big title. The studio best known for the series that began with Batman: Arkham Asylum has posted several new jobs on their website, seeking talent to join on for a “highly anticipated upcoming AAA title.” We knew Rocksteady was working on something new – they’ve been relatively quiet since optimizing Batman: Arkham Knight and releasing Batman: Arkham VR in 2016 – but these new postings seem to indicate that we’re going to get some news on a new Rocksteady title very soon.
Many of these new postings mention this same project, and several of them are listed as 2+ year contracts. Listed jobs include Senior Animator, Senior Environment Artist, Sound Designer, QA Tester, Producer, all manner of Programming positions, and Community Manager. Not every position has a timeframe listed, but so many going up around the same time seems to indicate that Rocksteady’s new project has found its stride and is moving into the next phase of development.
Rocksteady developed three of the critically lauded and commercially successful Arkham games: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City, and Arkham Knight. They did not develop the prequel title, Arkham Origins; it was developed by another Warner Bros. studio: WB Games Montreal. Consequently, it was generally seen as the weakest title in the series – provided the debacle that was the PC port of Arkham Knight isn’t taken into account.
There isn’t much information out there about what Rocksteady’s next project might be, but a 2+ year contract on a AAA title indicates it’s a big one. As the company is entirely under the Warner Bros. umbrella, there are a lot of existing properties they could draw from. F.E.A.R. could be making a return, although that seems unlikely. Mad Max had similar fighting mechanics to the Arkham series, but could have used some polishing and better storytelling; the original was developed by Avalanche Studios.
It’s probably another superhero game, but we’ll have to wait and see. How about bringing a badass Wonder Woman title to the table?
