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Almost five years after launching, Batman: Arkham Knight is still getting free alternate costumes for the Caped Crusader.
The latest is an Earth 2 Dark Knight skin, which will be available only for the PlayStation 4 version of the 2015 game. Developer Rocksteady Studios said yesterday that it would be available in the PlayStation Store beginning Jan. 28.
As promised last year, the Earth 2 Dark Knight Skin will be made available worldwide to players who own Batman: Arkham Knight on PS4. The Skin will be available for download on the PlayStation Store from the 28th of January. pic.twitter.com/zclEMkS7av
— Rocksteady Studios (@RocksteadyGames) January 24, 2020
Earth-2 is the first wholesale retcon of the DC Universe, dating to 1961. The creation of a parallel earth explains why there are different versions of major heroes, such as the Golden Age Flash (Jay Garrick) and his better-known Silver Age reboot (Barry Allen). Batman was largely exempted from this as he was one of a few major DC characters with a single continuity going all the way back to his first appearance. Still, if there’s an Earth-2 with a bunch of superheroes on it, then it also has a Batman.
This costume was part of the Batman: Arkham Collection that launched last year in Europe. Previously, the skin was available only in the North American version of the 2015 game, and only through a couple of limited-time promotions. Last July, Rocksteady promised that the Earth-2 Dark Knight costume would be made free to all who own the PS4 game, worldwide, sometime early this year.
Quick info for the players who have been asking. Batman: Arkham Collection is coming to Europe in Sept, and includes the E2DK skin (the first time it's available outside NA). Early next year E2DK will be released as a free download for everyone who owns BAK on PS4 worldwide.
— Gaz @ Rocksteady (@GazDeaves) July 7, 2019
So it’s unlikely this points to anything in the rumored sequel that WB Montreal is said to be developing. The studio (makers of 2013’s Batman: Arkham Origins) has been teasing a new Batman video game since last autumn. Clues as to what that’s supposed to involve point to the Court of Owls, a sinister society of Gotham City’s old money elites, which first appeared in 2011’s Batman Vol. 2 #1. That was part of The New 52, yet another wholesale reboot of DC’s lineup.