WB Games Montreal has announced that Gotham Knights has gone gold and is ready to ship in time for its October release date.
An announcement by Gotham Knights Developer WB Games Montreal on Twitter confirmed that the game has gone gold and is on its way to the manufacturing stage. After a year delay since the original planned release, Gotham Knights seems to be on track for an expected October 2022 release date.
Gotham Knights was first announced to a crowd of over 20 million viewers in 2020 at the virtual DC FanDome event hosted by DC Comics and Warner Bros. Entertainment. Although Gotham Knights is developed by WB Games Montreal, the team behind Batman: Arkham Origins acclaims Batman: Arkham franchise, Gotham Knights takes place in its own world separate from the Batman: Arkham series. Despite this departure, players can still expect a variety of familiar heroes and villains such as Mr. Freeze and Penguin. Batman is dead, leaving players to assume the roles of Batman Family members Nightwing, Batgirl, Red Hood and the new Robin as they carry on the caped crusader’s crime-fighting legacy.
Many people have heard the phrase “going gold” in the music industry, which indicates a record that has sold 500,000 copies, but the term has a different meaning in-game. When a game announces that gold, its development is considered complete and ready for release and print. Prior to the modern era of digital distribution, completed games were burned onto a writable “master” CD-ROM, which usually had a gold appearance. This golden master would then be the basis for duplication and sale, like master records in music. Although less common today, console games still available on disc may follow this practice. Digital-only games may still advertise that they’ve “gone gold” when it’s time to send the game to digital storefronts like Steam.
The announcement that Gotham Knights has gone gold means the game will most likely hit its October release date target, though that doesn’t necessarily mean the job is done for WB Games Montreal. The period of time between a game going gold and its release date is often reserved for work on the day one patch, an increasingly common occurrence in today’s industry where developers are faced with difficult times of crisis and workload demands that make it very difficult to meet deadlines. Many modern games end up with day one patches followed by a series of updates and DLCs, often accompanied by players taking it upon themselves to develop community patch mods to fix the issues.
The recent Batman: Arkham games have played a major role in driving interest in DC Comics-licensed titles, and many gamers are likely eager to revisit Gotham to fight crime once again. Hopefully, players and the citizens of Gotham can get by without Batman’s presence this time around.
Gotham Knights is set to release on October 25, 2022 on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.