Batman: Arkham Asylum Videogame Coming

The official website won’t be revealed for another two days and some change (around 12:00 noon EST Friday, August 15), but the word is out on the newest Batman game, and it is a very pleasant surprise.

Worthplaying.com has broken the news that the next Batman game is coming in 2009 from Warner and Eidos Interactive. London based RockSteady Studios, who only have the PS2/Xbox game Urban Chaos on their résumé, will be developing the game using the Unreal 3 Engine.

About that game- this is the much-rumored game based on smash hit The Dark Knight, right? Nope! The game is called Batman: Arkham Asylum. The game has Batman delivering The Joker to the infamous mental ward of Gotham City, where his immense Rogue’s Gallery has set a trap for him. The basic description sounds reminiscent of Grant Morrison’s second pitch for DC Comics, a book in 1989 also titled Arkham Asylum, wherein Batman takes on his greatest foes in a gauntlet style run through Arkham.

Important for long-time fans of the character hoping for a game worthy of Batman, Paul Dini scripted this latest effort. Dini is the current ongoing writer of the longest running comic in DC’s stable, Detective Comics, of course starring Batman. However, Dini is perhaps most known by fans of the Batman character as one of the producers and writers of a little show in the 90s called Batman: The Animated Series. Together with artist Bruce Timm, Dini established the animated DCU that would last through several TV series and nearly 15 years.

Phil Rogers, CEO of Eidos Interactive, promises the game will feature not just melee combat of a beat-em-up, but will also have Batman “utilizing his intuitive detective skills” to get through the adventure.

Again, more information on the 3rd person action game starring Batman and a host of villains will be forthcoming in just two more days, when this countdown clock reaches zero. Stay tuned here at Newsarama for more info as it comes in.