Rocksteady’s Rumored New Batman Game Definitely Won’t Be The Game I Want

It sounds like a new Batman: Arkham game might be in the works at Rocksteady Studios, but as exciting as that could be, it’s incredibly unlikely that the game will be the one that I personally want. The Batman: Arkham series is iconic for a reason, elevating the superhero genre with engaging stories, fluid combat, and a richly atmospheric take on Gotham City. More recent successes like the Marvel’s Spider-Man games for PS4 and PS5 draw a lot of inspiration from Rocksteady’s titles, and I’d argue that the newer alternatives still lose in a direct comparison.

Like a lot of fans, I started my Batman: Arkham journey with Arkham City. As an open-world sequel to Arkham Asylum at a time when open worlds were just becoming all the rage, Arkham City managed to give titans like The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim and the all-time masterpiece Portal 2 a run for their money as a GOTY contender. Unsurprisingly, I had a great time with the game, but bouncing back to Arkham Asylum afterward is what really made me fall in love with Rocksteady’s work.

Arkham Asylum Has An Unbeatable Atmosphere

I Love Every Nook & Cranny Of Arkham Asylum

Arkham Asylum is the one game in Rocksteady’s series to put the emphasis on the Arkham, confining Batman to the asylum and its grounds for the entirety of the game. Considering how fun gliding around rooftops in Arkham City is, stepping back to a game that’s so comparatively restrictive could easily have been disappointing. I had the opposite experience, however, and Arkham Asylum won me to its side long before the credits rolled.

For my personal tastes, the biggest strength of the Batman: Arkham series isn’t the great gameplay or interesting villains, but the detailed environments and the mood that they set. The Gothic sensibilities of Batman media have always played a large role in making the caped crusader such an interesting hero, and few things come close to Arkham Asylum in this regard. Tossing Batman into the lion’s den and never letting him out lets the game focus on every grungy feature of a facility in disrepair, quickly turning the memorable setting into a major character in its own right.

Although some visual elements of Batman: Arkham Asylum have naturally aged in the 15 years since its release, it’s still a marvel of detail in a way that larger open-world games struggle to match. There’s simply no way to make every corner of a giant map ooze with the personality of Arkham Asylum‘s claustrophobic corridors, and exploration can quickly dull once copy-pasting hits a certain saturation point. To their credit, the environments in Arkham games consistently hold their own, but I think Arkham Asylum remains the peak.

A Smaller Scale Might Make A New Arkham Game Better

I Want Something Like Arkham Asylum Again

I’m well aware that putting Arkham Asylum on a pedestal isn’t the most common take regarding the Batman: Arkham series, and the prospect of returning to an open-world Gotham is probably one of the most exciting promises of a new game for many fans. 2025 will mark the 10-year anniversary since Batman: Arkham Knight‘s release, and the passage of time certainly opens up new opportunities in open-world design. A new game could make exploration more intuitive and meaningful than before, and there’s no reason why its most important areas couldn’t rival Arkham Asylum‘s memorable atmosphere.

I’d rather see another smaller-scale title, however, something that I don’t think Rocksteady and I will see eye-to-eye on. For better or worse, AAA games have largely been in an arms race of scale for a long time now, and backing off from huge open worlds simply isn’t done in most scenarios. When a game does go smaller — Assassin’s Creed Mirage, for example — it tends to be positioned as a cheaper, less ambitious entry rather than something that converts that same giant machine of production to produce a more intimate, highly polished result.

A smaller game would be a great way to re-orient things after the recent fiasco of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, a big live-service swing for Rocksteady and an even bigger miss. If Suicide Squad successfully converted any one strength of the Batman: Arkham franchise, it was the joy of bounding across rooftops, with each character receiving unique movement possibilities that could be fun to employ. In an empty city that struggles to place memorable landmarks or find a dynamic visual identity, however, that just doesn’t feel all that meaningful.

Using a setting that’s closer in ambition to Batman: Arkham Asylum could ensure that every major piece of the game feels genuinely bespoke, which is what Rocksteady needs to hone in on more than anything else. A focused, relatively linear experience also runs less risk of an extended development cycle, something that the studio might not be able to afford in the wake of Suicide Squad: KTJL‘s financial failure. The ceiling for potential sales would likely be lower, but chasing the highest possible profits is what led to this mess to begin with.

A New Open-World Batman Game Could Still Be Good

The Series Has Already Done It Well

My case for a new Batman game that’s more like Arkham Asylum is more of a personal fancy than anything. I bounced hard off of Marvel’s Spider-Man, which felt to me like an incredibly polished shell around a hollow core, and I’d love for a new superhero game to suck me in like Arkham Asylum did. I’m not advocating a regression in design philosophy, as I’d like to see it innovate on its own terms, but I think that a limited scope could help it do so.

At the end of the day, I’ll be happy if a new Batman: Arkham game is simply good, even if it is the huge open-world title that it almost certainly will be. Dredging a finished story back up shouldn’t be done unless there’s a strong reason for it, and I’m hoping that reason is more than just financial needs. In my dream world, though, Rocksteady’s next Batman: Arkham game would revisit everything that made Arkham Asylum special, and I’ll have to allow myself a moment of mourning whenever that dream world is officially destroyed.