Batman: Arkham Origins announced, with a new developer in the Batcave

A new Batman game has been announced, via the circuitous route of a GameInformer cover.

cover. It's called Batman: Arkham Origins, and is being developed by Warner Bros. Games Montreal, who... wait a second, what's happened to Rocksteady? Does their disappearance have something to do with released image of infamous mercenary Deathstroke? Well, someone had better call the Commissioner. It looks like we've got a bat to signal.

"As the title suggests, the game takes place years before both of the previous Arkham titles when a young, unrefined Batman encounters many supervillains for the first time," write Game Informer. Is he encountering them in Arkham? We don't actually know, but I'd argue that it would be the more obvious reading of a game called "Arkham Origins".

The new developers, who were previously in charge of the Arkham City Wii U port, will be using Rocksteady's custom modified Unreal engine. So at the very least it should look, and hopefully play, like the Arkham series we've come to know and punch people with. It's being headed by Eric Holmes, who was the lead designer on open-world slice-em-up Prototype.

Batman: Arkham Origins is due out October 25th.