Rocksteady Comments on PS4 & New Xbox, Praises Naughty Dog

Rocksteady Studios have done an excellent job on Batman: Arkham Asylum; so much so, that it was touted as the best Batman game ever made, and one of the best games of the current console generation. Its sequel, Batman: Arkham City has just seen a release and is receiving the same praise its predecessor received. It’s looking bright for the developer, so it’s only natural for questions regarding their PS4 and Xbox 720 plans come into fruition; that’s exactly happened, as well as Rocksteady praising Naughty Dog.

The company’s director of marketing, Dax Ginn, explained to NowGamer that although the company have made a steller franchise in the form of Batman: Arkham, they don’t want to focus on the technology itself, rather just the games:

We’re just so used to rolling with whatever we’re given, but personally, if we made any demands of tech, I think we’re still too small for people to listen to them anyway.

We’ve got a very ‘laissez-faire’ attitude to platforms and technology because we’re a gaming studio, and we use whatever tools are at our disposal to make the best gameplay we can. That’s why we use middleware.

We don’t create our own engines, and we don’t write our own technology because that takes a long time. We just want to create great gameplay as quickly as we possibly can.

Maybe our tech director would have a different perspective on what he’d like to see from next-gen consoles. But from a gameplay and creative side, we’re just happy to be doing this now.

The award-winning developer also praised Uncharted creator Naughty Dog and their quality of titles:

I don’t think we have a direct relationship with Naughty Dog, but personally, I adore those guys, right back to the original Crash Bandicoot.

I think they’ve created some of the highest quality games of every generation of consoles they’ve developer for, and have existed at the top of their game. I don’t know what they think of us. I met some of the guys at E3 and we’ve had some one on one chat time with them.

Wally Wingert – the voice behind Riddler in Batman: Arkham City, meanwhile, told CBM when asked if the success of the the game’s predecessor increased the level of expectation:

I think The Riddler was more or less an afterthought for the first game, which is why you never saw him. But I think the fans enjoyed his perplexing riddles so much that they demanded an on-screen appearance in the sequel. It’s fun to see people’s faces when they realize I voiced The Riddler, because they say, “I hated you!” but in a good “love-to-hate” kind of way. Actually, I think the fans are looking forward to the new game to see if the snotty Riddler gets his comeuppance and gets pummelled by Batman.

Batman: Arkham City is now available worldwide. Naughty Dog’s Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception is due for a release on November 1st in North America and a day later in Europe. You can check out our round-up of reviews of the title over here.