Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group announced via press release today the acquisition of a majority stake in Rocksteady Studios, developer of Batman: Arkham Asylum, one of the most critically acclaimed games of 2009 and one of the better selling ones too with over three million units shipped worldwide.
“Rocksteady demonstrated its professionalism and extraordinary development abilities with Batman: Arkham Asylum,” said Kevin Tsujihara, president, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group. “This arrangement is a great strategic fit and we are very pleased to solidify our relationship with this talented development team.”
“We are proud to strengthen our association with WBIE, a world class publisher that we have enjoyed working with since we began developing Batman: Arkham Asylum,” said Jamie Walker, studio director at the London based Rocksteady Studios. Sefton Hill, games director, added, “The Rocksteady team is very much looking forward to creating more great games based on widely recognized Warner Bros. brands like Batman.”
“With the successful release of Batman: Arkham Asylum, a franchise that is a key focus for Warner Bros., Rocksteady has proven that they have the expertise to create hit games with mass appeal,” said Martin Tremblay, president, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. “We are currently working with Rocksteady on the sequel to Batman: Arkham Asylum and look forward to bringing the continuation of the franchise to fans worldwide.”
“We are delighted to be deepening our relationship with London-based Rocksteady Studios, one of the UK’s most respected games developers and 2009 recipient of the VGA’s coveted ‘studio of the year’ award,” said Josh Berger, president and managing director, Warner Bros. UK. “Rocksteady clearly has the talent, expertise and technology to make great games and we are fortunate to continue working closely with them as we further expand our games portfolio.”
So, there ya go…Hopefully the deal will lend itself to making the next Batman game even better…Of course, only time will tell. We’ll keep you posted on any new details as they emerge.
Good stuff, now lets hope we see more triple A titles from that company
Uh oh…
I don’t know what to think about this, we all know corporate pigs don’t have a clue about games, all they want is profit under their own terms.
I just hope that the next Batman game by Rocksteady doesn’t follow Iron Man or any other of those “Movie based” games that Movie/Media giants try to shove down our throats but that we gladly vomit back at them.
Usually these kind of “acquisitions” are a double edged sword for developer studios, because if the next game doesn’t surpass the first Batman (in regards to profits mind you, not quality, because we already know what can Rocksteady do) WB can just say “you’re not profitable, were closing you down”.
Anyway, here’s hoping for this to have a happy ending.
Cheers axe heads
Nice.
This just shows what a good developer that takes time with their games can do.
Just hope to God WB dont make them start rushing games out. If there’s one thing that can ruin a franchise its rushing games out before they’re ready.
They should make a descent superman game….
Agreed.