Let's cut back to a little more than a year ago, January, in the year of our lord, 2013. It may not seem like all that long, but things are moving ever more swiftly these days. Not long after Arkham City came out, but still a long time before Origins was announced, publisher Warner Bros had registered a slew of domain names for what was simply going to be a sequel for Arkham City. Said title would eventually go on to become Arkham Origins, a name that was included in a number of word combinations. But also included in that collection of domain names was much more, and what we now know as an Origins follow up.
Just like the Arkham City's wandering thugs alluded to (provided you were listening closely), titles like Arkham World and Arkham Universe were included as possible candidates for the next game, but so too were any number of combinations for the recently announced Batman: Arkham Knight.
At the time, the registered domains included the following:
- arkhamuniverse.com (Arkham Universe)
- batmanarkahmuniverse.com (Batman Arkham Universe)
- batmanarkhamarises.com (Batman Arkham Arises)
- batmanarkhambegins.com (Batman Arkham Begins)
- batmanarkhamdarkknight.com (Batman Arkham Dark Knight)
- batmanarkhamknight.com (Batman Arkham Knight)
- batmanarkhamlegend.com (Batman Arkham Legend)
- batmanarkhamlegends.com (Batman Arkham Legends)
- batmanarkhamnight.com (Batman Arkham Night)
- batmanarkhamorigins.com (Batman Arkham Origins)
- batmanarkhamstories.com (Batman Arkham Stories)
- darkknightarkham.com (Dark Knight Arkham)
- dcarkhamuniverse.com (DC Arkham Universe)
- dcarkhamverse.com (DC Arkhamverse)
- thearkhamuniverse.com (The Arkham Universe)
As seen in the list, the dark "knight" word play on the caped crusader's penchant for darkness and honorable intentions wasn't lost as a possible game title, especially with the same references in the comic, and the Nolan flicks that included the wordplay in its own movie titles.
So with Arkham Knight now confirmed, could the title of the next bat game be listed above? Could we see Batman: Arkham Legends, or a collection of side stories with Batman: Arkham Stories? The short answer is, "No." The unfortunate downside to the list is that none of the other domain names will ever grace the cover of a game box, as according to developer Rocksteady, Arkham Knight promises to be the final batty game in the Arkham series.
