Gotham Knights is delayed into 2022

Gotham Knights, the next game in Warner's Batman series (sort of—more on that below) has been delayed. When it was announced in August 2020 it was slated for release in 2021, but Warner Bros said in a brief announcement today that it's decided to push it into 2022.

"We are giving the game more time to deliver the best possible experience for players," Warner Bros tweeted. "Thank you to our amazing fans for your tremendous support of Gotham Knights. We look forward to showcasing more of the game in the coming months."

Nothing was said about why the game was delayed, but it wouldn't be unreasonable to guess that Covid-19 might be a factor. A third of developers responding to a July 2020 GDC survey reported their projects had been delayed by the pandemic, and the situation has not greatly improved since then.

As for the promised “sort of” explanation, Gotham Knights is a Batman brawler, but it isn't set in the Arkham universe. It looks like an Arkham game, with various Batpeople working to better society by putting petty criminals in the hospital, it's being published by the same company (although developed by a different studio—Arkham Asylum, City, and Knight were all made by Rocksteady), and even appears to pick up roughly where Arkham Knight left off, which ends—spoilers ahead!—with the apparent death of Batman.

But the Arkham series is being continued through Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, for some reason, while Gotham Knights spins off on a different continuity. Which is kind of appropriate for a game based on a comic book, I suppose.

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is also expected to be out in 2022, by the way, but that was the plan from the start.