The creation of Warner Bros. Discovery should be good news for fans, especially those that wish there were more games.
Back in 2009, when : Arkham Asylum was first released, there were only two Cinematic Universe movies and it wasn’t at all clear that the they were going to kickstart the most successful movie franchise of all time.
As the Arkham series went on that dominance became more evident but many suggested that while they struggled at the cinema, rival DC Comics could end up dominating the video game space instead – given the high quality of the Arkham games and the poor quality of what few Marvel tie-ins there were in the 2010s.
Needless to say that never happened, with the Injustice games being the only other high profile series to feature anyone but Batman. Although even then there hasn’t been a new Batman game since Arkham Knight in 2015. But it seems that someone at Warner Bros. has finally realised that that’s not a very sensible way of running things.
It’s been unclear how the Warner Bros. Discovery merger will affect Warner’s video game business, with early reports suggesting that at first the plan was to sell it off and then to .
In the end though it seems Warner Bros. Games will be largely unaffected by the merger and, in terms of titles based on DC Comics properties, we should end up seeing more titles than ever.
This comes as part of a reorganisation that will see DC Comics become a ‘content vertical’ within the company, which means someone will be in charge of the whole comics-related business, rather than different divisions of Warner (movies, TV, games, etc.) picking and choosing what they want.
The idea is clearly to try and mimic the success of Marvel Studios, with Warner supposedly seeking a ‘strategic czar’ to be the equivalent of Marvel’s Kevin Feige. But according to they will also be looking at ‘bolstering’ gaming.
There’s nothing else in the report specifically about games, but apparently one of the key goals of the reorganisation is to rejuvenate non-Batman characters such as Superman.
There have been numerous over the years (and cancelled, post-Arkham Knight Batman titles) but none of them have ever got as far as an official announcement.
However, a was announced at The Game Awards last year, with Arkham spin-off , which focuses on Batman’s sidekicks, due out this year and , by Arkham creators Rocksteady games, recently delayed until 2023.
That’s the most activity DC Comics properties have seen in close to a decade though and while two of the games are Batman-adjacent the character is not playable, as far as anyone knows, in either.
How Warner might expand further is unclear, but they have a bewildering array of movie and TV projects currently in development, featuring everyone from the Flash to Blue Beetle.
Ever since the Vertigo imprint, DC Comics has also been well known for more adult orientated content, that sometimes features superhero derived characters, such as The Sandman and Hellblazer, but often entirely original concepts.
Telltale Games’ is based on one such series, called Fables, and it’s possible the expansion at Warner Bros. may encompass other similar projects.
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