Batman: Arkham Knight gets another free costume on PS4

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.

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.

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.