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Warner Bros. Reportedly Passed On Arkham Developer’s Superman Game

Now, says James Sigfield, a GWW reporter who has been at a forefront of Arkham-related leaks for several years, it may turn out that the reason we won't see a Superman-based game isn't because Rocksteady was never planning to make on in the first place, but that their pitch was rejected by Warner Bros., who, as the parent company of DC Comics, withholds exclusive rights to the character. 

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It had long been rumored that Rocksteady Studios, the developers of the best-selling and critically acclaimed superhero games Batman: Arkham AsylumBatman: Arkham City and Batman: Arkham Knight was, at one point in time, considering applying their creative vision to the DC flagship character that is Superman.

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Now, says James Sigfield, a GWW reporter who’s been at the forefront of Arkham-related leaks for several years, it seems that the reason we won’t see a Superman-based video game isn’t because Rocksteady was never planning to make one in the first place, but because their pitch was rejected by Warner Bros.

According to Sigfield, who posted the news in a tweet, Rocksteady pitched the Superman project to WB executives as a follow-up to 2015’s Arkham Knight, but their idea was not well-received.

Why WB would have passed on the project is puzzling, especially considering Rocksteady’s Arkham franchise ranks among the most popular in recent years, and the original Arkham Asylum is widely applauded for showing the industry that superhero-based games – which had long been both a critical laughing stock and a commercial train wreck of a genre – could in fact be great.

Sure, the final title in the original trilogy, Arkham Knight, may have received slightly lower ratings than its predecessors, but at the end of the day it still sold millions of copies, leaving WB without a reasonable explanation for refusing to further associate with the now-legendary developer.

A more viable possibility might be that the entertainment empire is moving forward with their superhero games in-house. In 2014, their own studio, WB Montréal, launched a relatively successful and, presumably, much less expensive spinoff game set in Rocksteady’s Batman universe called Arkham Origins. Given that team is already pretty much confirmed to be developing a new Arkham installment based around the Court of Owls, it does seem plausible that WB simply has no interest in continuing their business with Rocksteady. But then again, why put all your eggs in one basket? And, more importantly, why settle for one when you could have two games? After all, it’s not like WB has an appetite for franchise fatigue.

Last but not least, they might simply just not be interested in a Superman game, which would be very understandable considering the character is among the least popular in the DCEU, and the only member of the Justice League whose franchise is not being continued anytime soon.