You may well have noticed today's big videogame business news: Warner Bros has bought a controlling stake in British studio Rocksteady Studios, the creator of last year's excellent Batman Arkham Asylum. That title was published by Eidos under license from Warner, but back in December the movie giant revealed that it would be publishing the sequel. After today's revelation, Eidos - or more accurately Square Enix - retains a 25% share in the developer.
As most industry news sources are pointing out, this purchase is only Warner Bros' latest videogame land grab. The company bought UK developer/publisher TT Games in 2007, and bailed out several of Midway's studios following the collapse of the games veteran last year. It's also another case of an independent British studio becoming a development arm for a foreign owner. Over the past four years some of the most successful studios in the country have been the subject of similar deals: Lionhead has been bought by Microsoft, Bizarre Creations by Activision, Playfish by EA, Sumo Digital by Foundation 9 and the embers of Free Radical Design by Crytek.
It's also symbolic of Hollywood's increasing interest in the videogame business. The likes of Walt Disney and Paramount are also running growing games divisions, looking to claw back some of the lost revenues from the slumping DVD market. Plus, in a world of CGI-splattered, intricately branded action flicks, a close relationship between film and game production makes a lot of sense.
Naturally, Rocksteady is being put to work on further Batman titles, but it seems the team will also be looking at other Warner Bros 'properties'. "The Rocksteady team is very much looking forward to creating more great games based on widely recognised Warner Bros. brands like Batman," said Rocksteady games director Sefton Hill. Some are already speculating whether this may include the Mortal Kombat license that Warner acquired as part of its Midway purchase. Others are hoping that the likes of Superman, Bladerunner and The Matrix may fall into the hands of a studio that produced the finest comic book license for a decade.
So, is this a glowing endorsement of the UK as a seductive creative powerhouse, or a depressing confirmation that Britain has become a development sweatshop with little power or control over the destiny of the industry? Not a politically correct question, perhaps, but an increasingly relevant one.
