Batman: Arkham Origins Game Coming in the Fall

Not long ago, word was that a new Batman: Arkham game was coming down the pike, but details were scarce. Today, it's been announced that the next game, titled Batman: Arkham Origins will go back rather than forward in the first Arkham game set on the streets of Gotham City. In a Year One-style approach to the games, the story isn't an origin for either Batman or Arkham, but takes place before the other games and tells the story of eight of the greatest assassins in the world (including, by the look of the promotional art at right, Deathstroke), who come together in Gotham on Christmas Eve to kill Batman. "We're very aware of the fact that we're standing on the shoulders of giants," said a rep for Warner Games during a video interview with Game Informer, embedded below. "We're playing in the space of some of the most critically-acclaimed games of all time."

There will also be a handheld version titled Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate for 3DS and Vita, described as a 2.5-D Metroid-style game developed by Armature Studios, the development house founded by ex-Retro developers who worked on Metroid Prime.