| Batman: The Dark Knight | |
|---|---|
| Developer(s) | Pandemic Studios |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Series | Batman |
| Platform(s) | PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 |
| Release | Canceled |
| Genre(s) | Stealth, action |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
Batman: The Dark Knight was an action-stealth game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 developed by Pandemic Studios from September 2006 until its cancellation in October 2008. It would have been the first open world video game to feature the DC Comics superhero Batman and was based on Christopher Nolan's film The Dark Knight. In Batman: The Dark Knight, the player controlled Batman, who could freely explore Gotham City, drive vehicles, and perform missions. Pandemic was given access to the film's script and other materials, and the cast was to reprise their roles for the game.
Pandemic began working on the game before the film's principal photography commenced. Batman: The Dark Knight was initially developed in the same linear style as the 2005 Batman Begins tie-in game, but was retooled when the studio decided an open world approach would better suit Nolan's interpretation of Batman. However, development was stalled when Pandemic's staff discovered the underlying technology desired to create the game was incompatible with most assets. Publisher Electronic Arts (EA) chose to cancel the game when it could not reach its intended December 2008 deadline.
EA reportedly missed US$100 million in potential revenue by not releasing a Dark Knight video game. The publisher did not renew its license for the Batman intellectual property afterwards. The rights reverted to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, which went on to release the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series. Batman: The Dark Knight was kept a secret during its development cycle; Gary Oldman made the only public mention of it during production. Since the game's cancellation, numerous video game journalists have retrospectively considered the potential it had if it was released.
Premise
editBatman: The Dark Knight was a action-stealth game in which the player controlled the DC Comics superhero Batman. It would have been based on Christopher Nolan's 2008 film The Dark Knight and the sequel to the 2005 game Batman Begins.[1] The story closely followed that of the film's and the cast was signed on to voice their respective characters the game. The film's distributor, Warner Bros., provided developer Pandemic Studios with the script, concept art, and other materials to assist.[2]
The game's earliest prototypes closely followed Batman Begins's gameplay approach as a linear action game. However, the later versions placed Batman in an open world version of Gotham City which he could freely explore. Batman could traverse on foot, through air by gliding, and by driving the Batmobile or Batcycle. The player could also perform missions.[2][3] Batman: The Dark Knight would have been the first open world Batman game, preceding Batman: Arkham City (2011).[4]
Development
editElevation Partners acquired the license for a video game based on The Dark Knight shortly after it was green-lit by Warner Bros. It outsourced development to Pandemic Studios, known for Star Wars: Battlefront and Destroy All Humans!; Pandemic's management assigned production to its Brisbane branch.[5][4] Electronic Arts (EA), which had previously published the Batman Begins tie-in game, was to publish Batman: The Dark Knight. Planning for Batman: The Dark Knight began in September 2006, before principal photography for the film. After the completion of Destroy All Humans! 2, Pandemic was split into two groups, with team "Alpha" working on a racing video game for the Wii and team "Bravo" working on Batman: The Dark Knight, which was intended to release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[2][3] EA had the rights to Batman for 18 months, which would expire in December 2008.[6]
Pandemic began to produce the game, though they had not been given any materials about the film yet. The first prototypes for the game were created on the PlayStation 2 because the studio had not chosen the game engine The Dark Knight would run on yet. The first work done on the game was creating Gotham City and the physics for Batman's gliding ability. The initial gameplay was linear, similar to the Batman Begins game. Most of the effort went into designing the graphical style and environments to mimic the look and feel of Batman Begins.[2] One of Elevation Partners' cofounders—singer and Batman fan Bono, who was on tour with U2—visited Brisbane during this stage of development. Though was showed an early and basic build, Bono was very impressed and enthusiastic about the amount of effort that had gone into the game.[7]
The direction of Batman: The Dark Knight changed when Pandemic learned that the game had to be based on the film.[6] Pandemic's office in Los Angeles had been working on a new game engine, Odin, which was created during the development of The Saboteur (2009) and was designed for detailed open world games. Pandemic decided that the open world approach would better suit Nolan's interpretation of Batman's world. By the end of 2007, Batman: The Dark Knight's assets were being transferred into Odin. However, this caused unforeseen technical problems and devastated development. Troubles began when Batman's model was imported; attempts to control him caused the frame rate to drop to five frames per second (FPS). Importing more characters caused the performance to get worse and caused many development kits to crash.[2][3]
The staff was shocked these problems occurred. The game had been intended to launch alongside the film, but meeting this deadline was impossible. Several team members quit as a result. Shortly after this, EA acquired Elevation Partners and delayed Batman: The Dark Knight's release to December, so it would coincide with the film's release on DVD and Blu-ray.[5] Pandemic saw this as an opportunity to salvage what they could and to work around the problems. The game began to become playable, but missions suffered from bugs and the slowdown was unresolved. Most of the frame rate problems came from the game's lighting system, which had to be manually altered after a change was made to the environment.[2][7] Other problems arose from the level design tools not being available for six months and management making decisions that had to be reversed.[6]
EA and Pandemic attempted to keep Batman: The Dark Knight a secret, but Gary Oldman, who played Jim Gordon in the film, revealed the game was in development during an interview with G4.[3][8] As Pandemic now had a considerable amount of pressure to finish the game since video game news outlets were covering it, EA expanded the development team to over 100 members. However, this was not enough to save the game, and EA canceled it in October 2008.[2][5]
Aftermath
editWith the absence of a Dark Knight game, EA reportedly missed US$100 million in potential revenue.[5] The Brisbane branch of Pandemic was shut down shortly after the Batman: The Dark Knight debacle in February 2009;[9] some staff moved to Los Angeles to finish The Saboteur. The studio was closed entirely in November 2009.[3] EA did not renew its license, so the rights to the Batman intellectual property reverted to Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment afterwards. Warner Bros. eventually released the critically acclaimed Batman: Arkham series, which feature an open world gameplay style.[5][4] Although a Dark Knight video game was never released, an expansion pack for Lego Batman 3: Beyond Gotham (2014) contains levels based on the film,[10] and Batman's suit from the film is available as downloadable content for Batman: Arkham Knight (2015).[11]
Batman: The Dark Knight was never officially announced.[2] Rumors of its existence surfaced in May 2007,[1] but before Oldman stated it was in development, video game journalists speculated why no video game adaptation of The Dark Knight had been announced.[8] Inverse wrote the absence of an adaptation was unusual: "In the late-aughts, it was pretty much guaranteed any superhero or animated family movie would have a video game tie-in that would capitalize on release... anyone would have snatched up a licensed videogame [sic] of The Dark Knight, one of the rare cultural events that actually surpassed the critical mass hype."[7]
In January 2009, Kotaku published a series of articles about the game's development cycle based on information from a Pandemic insider.[6] Further information was revealed in February 2016, when Did You Know Gaming? dedicated an episode of its series Unseen64 to Batman: The Dark Knight, showcasing gameplay footage from prototypes and concept artwork.[12] These revelations have elicited commentary on the potential the game had. The Escapist wrote the game showed a lot of promise for a licensed property, considering Pandemic had built a reputation for making quality games.[6] Reacting to the Unseen64 episode, GamesRadar+ thought it was interesting to see what a Dark Knight game could have been like,[13] and GameSpot called its cancellation unfortunate.[12]
References
edit- ^ a b Casamassina, Matt (May 17, 2007). "Rumor: Pandemic to Develop New Batman Game". IGN. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Marnell, Blair (February 2, 2016). "Footage from The Dark Knight's Canceled Video Game Hits the Web". Nerdist News. Retrieved May 6, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Nunneley, Stephany (February 2, 2016). "Here's a look at Pandemic's cancelled Batman The Dark Knight game". VG247. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ a b c Nieves, Davey (February 1, 2016). "The Dark Knight Film Tie-in Game That Might Have Been". Comics Beat. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Phillips, Tom (February 2, 2016). "Peek at the cancelled Batman The Dark Knight game". Eurogamer. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ a b c d e Chalk, Andy (January 16, 2009). "Screwing Up Batman". The Escapist. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
- ^ a b c Francisco, Eric (February 1, 2016). "Here's Why 'The Dark Knight' Didn't Have a Video Game Companion". Inverse. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ a b Johnson, Stephen (July 22, 2008). "'Dark Knight' Game Leaks". G4. Archived from the original on October 15, 2012. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ Harrison, David (February 11, 2009). "Pandemic Brisbane Shut Down". AusGamers. Retrieved May 10, 2018.
- ^ McWhertor, Michael (September 9, 2014). "The Dark Knight and Man of Steel come to Lego Batman 3 in the game's season pass". Polygon. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
- ^ Hill, Sefton [@Seftonhill] (September 27, 2015). "#BatPeoplePower has spoken. We're going to build the TDK batsuit! Thanks for your feedback! #ArkhamKnight" (Tweet). Archived from the original on October 2, 2015. Retrieved October 2, 2015 – via Twitter.
- ^ a b Paget, Mat (February 2, 2016). "See The Dark Knight Batman Game That Never Saw the Light of Day". GameSpot. Retrieved May 11, 2018.
- ^ Prell, Sam (February 2, 2016). "Batman almost got an open-world game 3 years before Arkham City". GamesRadar+. Retrieved May 11, 2018.