The summer game drought is in full swing, with only a collection of indie titles and a few scattered big-budget releases to keep you from descending into madness before fall arrives. One release that was supposed to help make July bearable was Batman: Return to Arkham, but Warner Bros. has delayed it just weeks before launch.
“After reviewing the progress of the project, the team at WB Games has decided to delay the release of Batman: Return to Arkham to give the team at Virtuous Games additional time to deliver a polished Batman Arkham experience,” said WB Games’ Steve Grayson on the game’s forums. “We dot not have a release date yet and will be sure to communicate that once the game will be ready. We know that is disappointing news, but we feel the extra time will allow the team to create the best gaming experience for our fans.”
Thus far, Virtuous Games‘ experience with current-generation consoles is pretty limited. The studio was responsible for Heavy Rain‘s PS4 port, as well as Final Fantasy X/X-2, but much of its previous work was in the mobile space, developing XCOM for iOS and Mortal Kombat X for Android.
The delay is disappointing, but not entirely unexpected. Last year’s Batman: Arkham Knight was a buggy abomination on PC, with WB even opting to temporarily halt its sale until some of the most game-breaking problems could be ironed out. While not quite as broken, 2013’s Arkham Origins featured a fair number of freezing problems; it was the first game in the series not developed by Rocksteady.
When Batman: Return to Arkham does see the light of day, it will be available on both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. The PlayStation 4-exclusive Arkham VR will be available in October.
