The element of surprise

Industry veteran Mark Cerny may have paraded the PlayStation 4’s simplistic development architecture prior to release, but it doesn’t appear to have made making next-gen games that much easier. Hot on the heels of The Order: 1886 and a spate of other titles, Warner Bros has confirmed that Batman: Arkham Knight will not release until 2015. There had been rumours regarding the title’s intended deploy date earlier in the year, but they were never confirmed. Now, however, the publisher’s pointed a big fat Bat Signal in the direction of the disappointing news.

Chatting with The Escapist, developer Rocksteady’s Guy Perkins explained the reason behind the delay. “We just want to make the best experience that we possibly can, and we need more time to do that,” he said. “I think that what we've shown so far is a super ambitious project, and we just want to make sure that we are giving Batman fans and gamers the best Batman experience that we can possibly deliver, and that just takes time. I think that we would be doing fans a disservice if we didn't spend the time on the title.”

Perkins continued that, while it’s difficult developing for new hardware, this isn’t necessarily the reason for the delay. “I think that it's just a case of we just want it to be really great,” he reiterated. “There are challenges inherent with moving across to these new platforms, but we always envisioned the game on that new hardware.” In other words: greatness waits. Naturally, this is saddening news, but much like The Order: 1886, if it benefits the release in the long run, then it’s hard to be too disappointed. Besides, the Christmas launch schedule was already beginning to make our internal review planning document look as complicated as Bruce Wayne’s underground control panel.

[source escapistmagazine.com, via vg247.com]