Video Games
‘Gotham Knights’: Batman is Dead in First Look at New Co-Op Game Coming 2021
We’d known for a little while now that we’d be seeing two new DC video games at its FanDome event this weekend. One, which will be revealed later, is Batman: Arkham series developer’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League game, the other is Warner Bros Montreal’s long-rumored Batman game, which we now know officially is titled Gotham Knights.
Only it’s not exactly a Batman game because Batman is apparently dead, and from beyond the grave, he’s called on his friends to take on Gotham’s criminal underworld in his place. Players will take up the mantle of Robin, Nightwing, Batgirl, and Red Hood as they clean the streets of Gotham together in a co-operative adventure.
The trailer suggests that in this world, recent events have caused a divide between the heroes and the GCPD, and crime is bubbling over in the wake of Batman’s death. If that wasn’t enough to deal with, the emergence of the Court of Owls looks to further escalate the chaos in the city.
The gameplay footage shown after that sees Batgirl teaming with Robin to infiltrate Mr. Freeze’s base. While the open-world Gotham City looks fairly similar to the one found in Rocksteady’s Arkham series, this footage clearly shows how different this latest Bat-game will play out, as RPG elements and online co-op are front and center.
There’s no firm release date mentioned for Gotham Knights, but a loose 2021 window was shown, and we’ll see it on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC
The rumoured cuts at Xbox have come to fruition, with plans to lay off 3,200 employees. In addition, five studios are also set to be let go, with Double Fine and South of Midnight developer Compulsion breaking off to go independent, while Ninja Theory (Senua) and Undead Labs (State of Decay 3) have been sold.
The fifth studio, Marvel’s Blade and Dishonored studio Arkane Lyon, is set to be divested from Xbox Game Studios, though details are still being kept under wraps.
Per Xbox Wire, Xbox CEO Asha Sharma confirmed the layoff and divestment plans at Xbox, but announced no plans for closures or game cancellations.
According to Sharma, Xbox is operating at “margins that are 3-10x lower than comparable platform and publishing businesses.” Sharma acknowledged Xbox’s previous pivots to Game Pass, multi-platform, and a “broader portfolio of content” have resulted in “meaningful value”, but it hasn’t been enough.
“Since 2018, we have aggressively expanded our studio portfolio while the number of games created each month across the industry now outpaces the last ten years combined,” she said. “We now find ourselves competing not only with the largest publishers, but also with smaller independent studios. It is neither possible nor desirable to own every great independent studio.”
As a result, Compulsion Games and Double Fine Productions “will return to management and transition to independent studios with their IP, catalog, and runway for their next games.” Meanwhile, Ninja Theory and Undead Labs “have entered terms to join new ownership with funding to complete and grow Senua and State of Decay 3.” As for Arkane Lyon, the studio’s management “is beginning required consultation with its Works Council to review potential strategic options.”
The 3,200 cuts will be made throughout Xbox’s financial year across departments, with some areas being more affected than others. This is expected to affect around 20% of the developer’s workforce.
In addition, Bethesda will also undergo “a significant overhaul”, and will pivot to focus on its core franchises: Fallout, The Elder Scrolls, DOOM, Quake, and Wolfenstein. None of our first party publicly announced games or projects are being cancelled as part of these reductions.
“These changes are about a bigger future for Xbox, not a smaller one,” says Sharma. “The next decade of gaming will be larger, more global, and more creative than anything we’ve seen before. This year, we’ll invest as much in Xbox as we ever have, but we’ll invest with greater focus, greater discipline, and greater clarity, all in service of making Xbox where the world plays and creates.”