At the beginning of the year, one of the biggest rumors surrounding Gotham Knights claimed WB Games was looking to create its own DC Games Universe, a Marvel Cinematic Universe-Esque series of connected games based on DC Comics expanded roster of heroes and villains. It was thought that WB Games would launch its next era of games with a Batman Arkham reboot from WB Games Montreal, followed by the long-anticipated next project from Rocksteady Studios; two games that have since been revealed as Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League.
Warner Bros. DC FanDome event in August finally offered fans a first real look at both upcoming games and confirmed a number of major rumors including the playable Bat-Family, the debut of the Court of Owls, and well, the Suicide Squad. With so many of the details already seemingly confirmed via leaks beforehand, is it possible that WB Games plans for a DC Games Universe could also be something that's about to unfold? Will Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League be the beginning of a connected DC universe, or are they standalone games with little more in common than their comic book origins?
RELATED: Watch Batman Arkham Knight Running in 8K Resolution
Gotham Knights
Outside of cryptic images on Twitter over the past year, WB Games Montreal has been relatively quiet since it released Batman: Arkham Origins back in 2013, making Gotham Knights its first full game in almost a decade. Due to release on both current and next-generation platforms sometime in 2021, Gotham Knights is a third-person cooperative action-adventure game starring the extended "Bat-Family" as they go toe-to-toe with the infamous Court of Owls, a secret underground society that has been running Gotham City from the shadows for centuries.
Set within its own continuity, separate from WB Games Montreals previous work in the Batman Arkham series, Gotham Knights will is a standalone original story. The game's reveal trailer at DC FanDome set-up the apparent death of Bruce Wayne and Police Commissioner Jim Gordan, forcing Nightwing, Bat-Girl, Red Hood, and Robin, to team up in an effort to bring justice to Gotham after widespread corruption took hold of the city and the GCPD. It was also revealed that Gotham Knights will support two-player cooperative play throughout the entire game, and a number of fan-favorite characters from DC Comics will make an appearance including Alfred Pennyworth, Mr. Freeze, the new GCPD Captain Renee Montoya, and the Court of Owls who first debuted in the New 52 Batman series.
Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League
Rather than starting fresh with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League like WB Games Montreal is doing with Gotham Knights to avoid being tied to existing continuity, Rocksteady Studios has chosen to double-down on its legacy confirming Suicide Squad will be set in the same universe as its Batman Arkham series. Described as an "action-adventure shooter," Suicide Squad is confirmed for next-gen platforms including PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, with a tentative release window of 2022. The game has been designed with multiplayer in mind, however, and similar to Gotham Knights and Marvel's Avengers, can be played entirely solo with four playable characters available at launch including Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Captain Boomerang, and King Shark. There's no word on whether or not Suicide Squad will get more characters post-launch.
As for the game’s story, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League takes place in Superman’s home city of Metropolis sometime after the events of Batman: Arkham Knight. Amanda Waller has sent the Suicide Squad to investigate an attack on Metropolis and kill the Alpha Target, which appears to be Super-Man. The game's reveal trailer at DC FanDome confirmed that DC Comics villain Brainiac is behind the attack on Metropolis. It should go without saying that based on the game’s full title, players are going to find themselves up against more than just the Man of Steel. Unfortunately, right now there’s only been one trailer for the game, meaning little else is known about the game including which Justice League heroes will be in the game.
Is WB Building A DC Games Universe?
Now back to the original question at hand: Is WB Games building a connected DC Games Universe? Unfortunately, the answer, at least right now, appears to be no. Unless Warner Bros. has unannounced plans to expand its roster of developers now that AT&T is no longer selling its video game division, without expanding into the DC multiverse and introducing more than two developers, those rumors of a DC Games connected universe are likely false, given they are separate continuities.
Rather than continue on from Batman: Arkham Knight, WB Games Montreal chose to create its own original story about the Bat-Family, setting up Gotham Knights as a standalone game. And on the side of the coin, Rocksteady Studios doubled down on what it created and chose to set Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League in the same universe as the Batman Arkham series. It certainly would have been a really interesting idea and something that would be great to see in the future, but for right now, Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad are entirely separate games that share a familiar DC Comics origins and an intense level of excitement from fans.
Gotham Knights releases on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X in 2021.