Update
WB Games have now confirmed that Batman: Return to Arkham is indeed on the way, containing remastered versions of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City. It will launch on July 29th, 2016, with a retail price of £39.99 on Xbox One.
An announcement trailer follows:-
Original Story
Warner Bros have unsuspectingly leaked news on the much-rumoured Rocksteady Batman Arkham collection for Xbox One.
A beady-eyed Reddit user has spotted that in the company's own Italian trade magazine, they've listed Batman: Return to Arkham, complete with a street date of June 10th on Xbox One. The collection includes remastered versions of Batman: Arkham Asylum and Batman: Arkham City, complete with updated and optimised graphics. The article also confirms that the collection will include all released DLC and content updates.
Given all of the leaks that have been going on for this collection, we'd imagine that Warner Bros will officially announce it within the next week. Especially if that 10th June street date is correct.
[source reddit.com]
Comments 34
Loved this series! Will be getting this for sure!
I find the omission of Arkham Origins completely ridiculous. Despite not being as well-received as Asylum and City, it is still a great Arkham game with an awesome story and cool boss fights. It almost feels like WB wants Origins to simply be forgotten...
I loved Arkham City and enjoyed Arkham Asylum but I'll wait to see the price before I'll think about this. I'm not paying £40 to replay games I own already.
I'm Batman!
Loved the games, will buy again.
@Anthinator Origins was not part of the Arkham 'canon', wasn't made by Rocksteady and even had a different cast for the characters. It was nothing more than 'cash-in' whilst Rocksteady had time and chance to finish off the 'trilogy'. It really shouldn't have had 'Arkham' in the title because it has nothing to do with the 'Arkham' trilogy created by Rocksteady.
I already have all 3 Arkham games on both PS and XB - yes its one of the game series I have on BOTH platforms. I also have the GotY of 'City' so have all the 'DLC' for that - Harley Quinns Revenge is OK- better than the DLC they did for Arkham Knight...
@BAMozzy Origins is part of the Arkham "canon" and even Rocksteady say so with multiple references in Knight. All 4 Arkham games had 2 year gaps, so its hardly a cash-in, it was just poorly developed by an inexperienced team at Warner Bros. Games Montréal. Having it in this collection would have been a great opportunity to clean up - what is for the most part - a great game.
As @Anthinator said, Origins had an awesome story and some great boss fights. Honestly, being a hardcore Batman fan, Origins had a better story than most of Arkham Knight - excluding the Joker in Batman's head plot-line, which was amazing.
I personally would rather they make the 360 versions backwards compatible but seeing as that would defeat the purpose of this collection that is unlikely to happen, and even if it does it will be a long time from now. I already 100%ed both games multiple times over so I doubt I will be picking this up, despite the fact that they are excellent games.
Probably wont' buy it but Asylum is easily my favorite superhero video game of all-time. Anybody who has missed that game, I'd say with this collection there will be no better time to give a try.
I'm not really interested in this. I still have Asylum & City. And I thought Origins was about as "meh" as BioShock 2 was for the BioShock series. No Rocksteady, no Arkham.......in my opinion. So it not being here doesn't bother me.
I am surprised Arkham Knight is not included in this. I know it's a newer game, but c'mon. It would have put all 3 Rocksteady games in one package.
@Anthinator I liked Origins more than City which I was massively underwhelmed by. Asylum is the only one I thought was great, though. Curious to see how it's aged.
@BamOZZY genuinely curious, why do you use so many single quotes around words?
@KelticDevil "I am surprised Arkham Knight is not included in this."
Because they'll put all the DLC for Arkham Knight on a disc and sell that for $60. Makes 0 sense to include that in this package right now.
Hope it'll be priced like the Metro games and not be a rip-off... If it is I may well just pick this up as I never completed either of them on 360. Regardless of whether it was made by RockSteady or not they should have come to some sort of arrangement to have all 3 games presented together... Sucks that only first 2 are in the package.
@tylertreese Because its a LOT easier than using bold or italics...
@tylertreese
How does it make "zero sense"? You could have all of Rocksteady's Batman games in one package & charge $60 for it. Asylum & City came out many years ago. You could probably find them, used, for under $10 now. Throwing in the newer game would be a reason to charge full price again.
If this "collection" is more than $30, it's a rip-off. These companies want to keep throwing out these lazy remasters, but I won't make excuses for them.
@BAMozzy
"Origins wasn't canon and was just a cash-in"
They sure didn't advertise it as such. When they wanted to sell copies it was "the next great game in the Arkham series!" but when it comes to including value in a collection it's "not really worthy"
@KelticDevil I already explained why it doesn't make sense? Not sure if you just skipped that part of my post or what. They haven't done the Game of the Year version yet, and that'll bring it back on store shelves (and at full price). Bundling it with past games would come later down the line once these two SKUs aren't on most store shelves anymore. It's basic retail, and the behavior we've seen from publishers over the past decade.
Also, stop calling developers lazy. They work insanely hard for not nearly enough money. You have no clue what work it takes to port a game across systems, and yet you're calling others lazy. That's not cool, and you should know better than that.
This is a day one purchase. I'm guessing a 40 dollar price point. If they make Origins available via backwards compatibility, my xbox one will stay on forever to play through all these games.
@tylertreese
I didn't skip any of your post. I just don't agree with you. And just because YOU say it doesn't make sense, that doesn't make it so. People have different opinions. Deal with it.
And if I feel developers are being lazy, then I will say it. If you don't like it, I don't care. Once again, it's an opinion. Obviously, it differs from your's. If you want to get all ticked off about it, that's your choice. I'm sure WB Games, Rocksteady, & whatever company is working on these ports will appreciate your money.
@JaxonH
They sure did advertise it as the next big thing, but the fans spoke and for the majority it wasn't up to par. If you ask me though, I'd probably say Origins had a better story than City and Arkham Knight and that's a huge part of these games, so if there is going to be a collection, go all out. It doesn't shock me not to see it as part of this though. Of course after this collection makes WB some easy money and it wants to score another cash grab, you can expect to see an 'Origins Collection' which will have Origins and a port of the console port of Blackgate.
@Gamer83
I mean, I can't say it's not a great value. Even at $59.99 that's like getting each game for $29.99 remastered on current gen, when most remasters go for $39.99-$59.99 for a single game (though there have been some great compilations- Halo and Uncharted come to mind).
I don't think it was any less a game than Arkham City, it just had less beloved characters and didn't raise the bar whatsoever. And being the 3rd game in the series things started to get stale, which multiplied the issues of doing nothing new and having less intriguing villains.
But, of course I'm buying this. I never played Asylum and have wanted to for years. I'll finally get that chance
@tylertreese @KelticDevil
You're not alone Keltic, lots of devs seem lazy with the remasters, especially when they are glitchy, buggy, and inexcusable messes
@JaxonH I've gotta agree, it seems like good value. Then again, I only played a limited amount of Asylum and I've already got Knight, so it'll be like getting two AAA titles for one price. I can't fault that.
@tylertreese Also agree with this.
Arkham Knight is still going for £54.99 digitally, with a £32.79 season pass. It'll undoubtedly get a standalone Game of The Year edition towards Christmas that contains all the DLC. They won't throw all that in with a £40 set that already contains two games.
Plus, you've gotta believe that the folks who loved the Arkham games on 360 and who own an Xbox One, already own Arkham Knight anyway and will get this as the two 360 titles aren't B/C. Also, by just bundling the two, they'll potentially drive sales of Arkham Knight to people who maybe weren't so interested in City or Asylum the first time around, but who grab the remasters as they're great value.
It's a smart business decision from a developer that probably doesn't have anything else on the table this year.
@A_BabyRed_Yoshi
Exactly. I'm tired of these lazy, cash-in "remasters" this generation. This "collection" shouldn't be more than $30 TOPS (and even that's stretching it), especially when Origins & Blackgate aren't even included. Plus, the DLC for Asylum and City wasn't even that good, in my opinion.
I'm tired of people making excuses for developers and publishers. I am pretty sure WB Games & Rocksteady already made a killing, money-wise, off of these games years ago. And I'm pretty sure Rocksteady won't even be the company handling this "collection". Usually companies farm these duties out to smaller development teams. But just because it makes good business sense for two companies, doesn't mean it's a good value for gamers. Especially since they didn't even bother including two Arkham games that should be here, regardless of how well they were received critically.
If you are going to do a remaster, improve on the game (and not just some minor graphic enhancements) or offer such great value that it doesn't matter. And I highly doubt that this collection will offer either.
@Gamer83 I really enjoyed Origins and I'm genuinely disappointed that it hasn't been included... makes no sense for it to be omitted whatsoever to me. Wouldn't surprise me if what you suggest comes true though.
What would please me more though would be adding the whole lot to the BC list but that's not gonna happen as there's little money in that for them...
@KelticDevil "But just because it makes good business sense for two companies, doesn't mean it's a good value for gamers."
Of course not. But then again, when somebody is saying that they understand that something is good business sense for two companies, they're not necessarily saying that it's good value for consumers, nor are they necessarily making excuses for anyone. They're saying that they understand the decision when others are saying that the decision can't be understood.
Nothing more, nothing less.
@SuperKMx
Fair enough.
But with that said, do you agree that Origins should be in this "collection"? I think it's completely ridiculous that it's not. And so should Blackgate, actually.
When Sony released the Uncharted Collection, I was irritated that Golden Abyss wasn't included. But that was a Vita game that has never been ported over to consoles, so I kind of understood. In this case, there is no excuse whatsoever. Origins was a 360 game & Blackgate was already ported to 360 from the Vita.
I understand the two games were not received (critically speaking) as well as Arkham and/or City, but the two games have their fans & they are Arkham games. You would buy this "collection" knowing all of that? I just think that sends a bad message to these companies.
But, to each their own. I know the definition of good value is something that means something different to everyone. And I think it really depends on how much they are going to charge for this.
@KelticDevil I agree that Origins probably should be in the collection, yes. But I also think that the line is sometimes tricky to see. If we're including Origins, why not include Arkham City Lockdown from iOS/Android? It's set before Arkham City and is canon, AFAIK. If we're including that game, why not include a comic book set to flesh things out further? In this case, I think they've judged it (arguably incorrectly) on critical reception as opposed to it being laziness or a want to bleed gamers dry, but I can also totally see why someone would be bothered about Origins not being there.
Like you say, good value is different to everyone. I'm not so invested in the story or lore so to speak so Origins isn't necessarily as big a loss to me as it would be to others. As I've said, the two games included in the set would be more or less entirely new to me and assuming they haven't suddenly aged to the point that they're unplayable, two full games for (probably) less than the price of one is appealing enough, given that I had fun with Arkham Knight.
And absolutely, it's gonna depend on the price. At £54.99 I'm not a player in any way, but throw this on the shelves for £30 and I'll at least take a long look.
@SuperKMx
With all due respect, I think there is a HUGE difference between including 2 old Xbox 360 Arkham games as opposed to one cell phone game that was never optimzed for consoles in the first place & a comic book. Lol.
@KelticDevil Ah, the condescending "lol." Not seen it after "with all due respect" for a while, I have to say.
I'm done here.
@KelticDevil the big difference between not including the 2 Origins games and just including City/Asylum is that they have to do twice the amount of work for a minimal additional return. I know you think remasters don't take any work (because you continue to insult developers repeatedly over it), but they actually do. Porting isn't some simple thing.
Anyone know if the achievements will carry over or you can get them again (like GTA V)?
@Captain_Chao5 They'll be separate so you can get them again, since the new games are remasters so counted as entirely separate on the achievements list.
@SuperKMx Ooh. That makes it more tempting. I'd be curious to see a comparison (which will surely pop-up on the interwebs soon) between the old and new versions.
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