With E3 2019 kicking off in just a few days’ time, publishers and developers have already began making announcements regarding games that will be at the show. Unfortunately, not all the pre-E3 news is good, as Batman Arkham Knight developer Rocksteady Games has confirmed that it will not be attending the show in any form, and the much-rumored new Rocksteady game will not be revealed at E3 2019. The Rocksteady E3 no-show will be the fifth year in a row that the studio hasn’t attended the expo.
The announcement was made by studio founder and professional crusher of dreams Sefton Hill on Twitter. It had been strongly rumored that Rocksteady’s new game would be revealed at E3, possibly featuring the Suicide Squad, but rather than let the rumors continue (and risk massive disappointment from fans when they discovered the lack of anything Rocksteady at the expo) either the studio or Hill himself obviously decided to set the record straight. The Batman Arkham developer will not be at the show in any capacity.
Hi all! A number of you have asked so we wanted to let you all know up front that @Rocksteadygames won't be showing at E3 this year. We’ll be watching as fans but remaining in London, hard at work on our next big project. Enjoy the show!
— Sefton Hill (@Seftonhill) June 4, 2019
Why is there a Rocksteady E3 no-show?
According to Sefton Hill, the reason that Rocksteady Games isn’t at E3 is that the studio is still “hard at work on our next big project,” and it is still not ready to reveal what it is working on. It’s been four years since Batman Arkham Knight, which released in 2015, but Rocksteady itself hasn’t been at E3 since the show the year previously, E3 2014. While it seems the developer are indeed gearing up for a proper game reveal soon-ish, obviously that’s not going to be at E3, and the game probably won’t be out this year either.
As for what the new Rocksteady game actually is, while Suicide Squad and something called Outlaws have been suggested, the only thing that we know for sure is that it’s not Superman. Still, there’s always hope that the next Batman Arkham game from Origins creators WB Montreal may be at E3 2019 instead.