Batman: Return to Arkham hit by indefinite delay

Warner Bros. has officially delayed the release of Batman: Return to Arkham, a compilation of previous Batman: Arkham franchise games originally due to launch on the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One later this month.

While the games in the Batman: Arkham franchise, which began with Batman: Arkham Asylum, have been praised for their gameplay and plot elements, the more recent titles haven't been kind to publisher Warner Bros. The company was forced to pull Batman: Arkham Knight from sale following numerous issues with the Windows port, which ultimately resulted in the company cancelling plans to port the game to OS X and Linux. Amid a wave of negative feedback, the company offered full refunds before announcing in May that the next game in the franchise would be a remaster bundle dubbed Batman: Return to Arkham.

While you may think that remastering existing games would be easier than developing a true sequel, things don't appear to be going well for Warner Bros. or Virtuous Games, the development firm. 'After reviewing the progress of the project, the team at WB Games has decided to delay the release of Batman: Return to Arkham to give the team at Virtuous Games additional time to deliver a polished Batman Arkham game experience,' a Warner Bros. spokesperson explained in an announcement this week. 'We do not have a release date yet and will be sure to communicate that once we are sure the game will be ready. We know this is disappointing news, but we feel the extra time will allow the team to create the best gaming experience for our fans.'

The announcement followed claims by sources speaking to Eurogamer that the title would be pushed back to November due to issues with 'the quality of the port from Chinese developer Virtuous Games,' with particular reference to frame rate issues - the same issues which plagued Batman: Arkham Knight.