After six months of silence Gotham Knights finally popped up again with a gameplay walkthrough and a slew of other marketing material.
Part of that marketing material is a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section on the official Gotham Knights website.
This section is rather extensive and combines previously-released information about the game as well as some new reveals about it, such as the fact that it will now only launch on current generation consoles (PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S) as well as PC.
For those wondering why the older consoles have been left out, the generic response of “providing the best possible gameplay experience” is provided as an explanation.
One question we’ve seen asked repeatedly is this game’s connection to the Arkham series from Rocksteady Studios. Gotham Knights is being made without Rocksteady and is instead a fully Warner Bros. endeavour with the company acting as the publisher and its subsidiary Warner Bros. Games Montréal is the developer.
“Gotham Knights is an all-new, original story and experience set in DC’s Batman Universe. It is not connected to the Batman: Arkham games,” the FAQ reads.
Further separating the two franchises is a second question asking if the combat will be similar to the Arkham series with the reply stating that Gotham Knights has “unique” combat that is “brand-new”.
The disappointing news continues here when we get to the pricing. Warner Bros. has, like many other companies, shifted the goal posts when it comes to pricing, abandoning the $60 standard for new games.
“The Gotham Knights Standard Edition can be pre-ordered for $69.99 (SRP). The Gotham Knights Deluxe Edition can be pre-ordered for $89.99 (SRP), including the base game and Visionary Pack downloadable content (DLC) with exclusive gear, cosmetics, Beyond Suitstyle character skins inspired by the Batman Beyond animated series and more. The Gotham Knights Collector’s Edition can be pre-ordered for $299.99 (SRP), featuring the Deluxe Edition, augmented reality collectable pin, 16-page media book, exclusive Gotham City map, four-character statue diorama and more,” the FAQ section continues.
For us in South Africa here is what the pricing looks like for the digital versions of the game. At the time of publication no local stores seem to have stock of the Collector’s Edition just yet.
As a reminder $69.99 converts to ~R1 125.27 and $89.99 to ~R1 446.82.
On PC pricing is the same for Steam and the Epic Games Store with the Standard Edition for R799 and Deluxe Edition for R1 069. Console players get the same pricing across PlayStation and Xbox as the Standard Edition is R1 249 and Deluxe Edition is R1 519.
It seems that console pricing is just about in line with the US model while PC is cheaper.
As there’s such a focus on co-op here there are several questions around it which we have summarised:
- Multiplayer? Yes, two-player co-op.
- Full game co-op? Yes.
- Local co-op? No.
- Cross-play? No.
- PlayStation Plus / Xbox Live Gold membership required for online play? Yes.
Our disappointment about a lack of cross-play is balanced out somewhat by the fact that there will be no microtransactions. We can only imagine that Warner Bros. learnt from the dumpster fire, microtransaction-riddled failure of Marvel’s Avengers.
The above is just some of the most poignant sections from the FAQ. We recommend those interested in the game reading the full thing here.
Gotham Knights releases on 25th October 2022.
