A new report claims Rocksteady co-founders Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker have signed a deal with Xbox to fund their new studio’s next big AAA action game.
Rocksteady is most famous for its Batman: Arkham trilogy, featuring fluid combat, large open maps, and popular villains like Harley Quinn, Mr. Freeze, and the Joker. After releasing Arkham Knight in 2015, the studio shifted gears and developed Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, an online-only third-person looter shooter staring villains set in the same DC universe as Rocksteady’s Arkham franchise. But in 2022, before that game launched to meh reviews earlier this year, Rocksteady’s co-founders, Hill and Walker, left the studio to form a new company that is now reportedly working on a game for Microsoft.
According to a new report by eXputer, Hundred Star—the studio created by Rocksteady’s co-founders in 2023—has signed a deal with Xbox Game Studios to develop a “AAA-standard, single-player, action-adventure game” built in Unreal 5.
Kotaku has reached out to Xbox and Hundred Star Games about the report.
Not much is known about the project yet, likely because it’s still extremely early days for the game. At this point, it’s still years and years away from launch. eXputer says the deal with Xbox has been signed, and approved, with Hundred Star now receiving funding to develop the AAA action game. It might be an Xbox and PC exclusive, likely to launch on Game Pass, but considering how uncertain all of that seems right now—with Xbox games arriving on PS5—it’s impossible to say for sure.
In 2020, Rocksteady responded to a report by The Guardian detailing sexual harassment in its workplace, saying, “All formal complaints were thoroughly investigated, addressed appropriately and a number of serious measures were taken in response to the issues that were surfaced, including discipline or termination of staff.” In 2022, Suicide Squad writer Kim MacAskill passed on a lifetime achievement award from Women in Games which was sponsored by Rocksteady Studios and its parent company, Warner Bros., among others.
“You can throw your name on every diversity event going,” MacAskill said, “but unless you take accountability, it means nothing and I see you.”
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