With high-grossing franchises like Batman, Mortal Kombat, and multiple LEGO titles, Warner Bros. has been largely successful in its recent forays into the video game business. President of Warner Interactive, Martin Tremblay, asserts that he expects 2011 to be the company's most profitable year in interactive entertainment, "on track to generate close to $1 billion in sales." Today's release of Batman: Arkham City for consoles is sure to help matters.

Read more: Success explained and upcoming titles teased

If you're a gamer who doesn't own a PC, PlayStation 3, or Xbox 360 -- first of all, what are you doing here? But second, good news! You can finally play one of the hottest games of 2009, Batman: Arkham Asylum. It will release on October 13 for $39.99, just a week before Arkham City hits. You can even grab it as a direct download from the Mac App Store.

Read more: Arkham Asylum's port studio »

Microsoft has once again outlined the next two weeks of Xbox Live Marketplace Arcade games, discounts, Games on Demand, and other assorted goodies.

Halo: Reach delivered digitally through Games on Demand will be $49.99 for one week only, starting today, no doubt to promote the launch of the Defiant Map Pack. And if you love Batman but don't yet own Arkham Asylum, you don't exist -- but the game is getting a price drop to $29.99 starting today anyway. Read more »

In conjunction with the enhanced "Game of the Year Edition" re-release of Batman: Arkham Asylum headed to North American retailers today, those that already own the game can now download two more add-ons.

The first, "Dem Bones Challenge Map," was previously only available to those that pre-ordered the brawler from retailer GameStop. The second, "Crime Alley Challenge Map," was previously only offered to those that bought the collector's edition of the game. Read more »

Ever-expanding publisher Warner Bros Interactive is opening a new Montreal-based development studio dubbed WB Games Montreal, GameFocus reports.

This particular branch of the WB Games family will be led by company Martin Tremblay, and will reportedly focus on crafting games based on DC Comics properties--a brand that includes Superman, Batman, Green Lantern, Justice League, and so on. Read more »

That enhanced Game of the Year-branded re-release of Batman: Arkham Asylum is also coming to North America, publishers Square Enix and Warner Bros confirmed today.

As with the European edition, the North American re-release sees TriOviz 3D support added to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions, with the retail package including the 3D glasses required to take advantage of said support. Read more »

In a double-whammy of awarding goodness, the winners of the tenth annual Game Developers Choice Awards were revealed yesterday evening at Game Developers Conference 2010 following the twelfth annual Independent Games Festival Awards.

An enhanced re-release of Rocksteady's acclaimed action-adventure Batman: Arkham Asylum will hit Europe and "other PAL territories" on March 26, publisher Square Enix announced today, with no word yet on an accompanying North American edition.

Most notably, the "Game of the Year Edition" coming to PlaySation 3 and Xbox 360 includes 3D glasses to take advantage of the added TriOviz 3D support, said to be "compatible with all standard and high definition TV sets" and work "by leveraging the depth-of-field while maintaining the original gameplay and colour integrity." Read more »

Entertainment giant Warner Bros. announced today that it has acquired a majority stake in Batman: Arkham Asylum developer Rocksteady Studios, a move which is likely to see the London-based studio creating video game adaptations of further key WB brands.

"Rocksteady demonstrated its professionalism and extraordinary development abilities with Batman: Arkham Asylum," said Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group president Kevin Tsujihara in a press statement. "This arrangement is a great strategic fit and we are very pleased to solidify our relationship with this talented development team." Read more »

The Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences (AIAS) announced the winners for the 13th annual Interactive Achievement Awards yesterday. Developer Naughty Dog's cinematic action-adventure, Uncharted 2, was the undisputed star of the show, running away with ten different awards.

The Jay Mohr-hosted event, held at the Red Rock Resort in Las Vegas during the DICE Summit, highlighted the most impressive achievements in game development in 2009, as decided by industry peers. Read more »

Update: Though the free "Prey in the Darkness" downloadable content for Batman: Arkham Aslyum is already available on Xbox 360 in Europe, Eidos has clarified that the tomorrow's North American release of the add-on will be a PlayStation 3 exclusive.

"The new content will be available beginning September 24th in North America as a free download exclusively on the PlayStation Network," the company explained in a joint statement with Warner Bros. "Outside of North America, the Prey in the Darkness Map Pack will be available on both PlayStation Network and Xbox LIVE Marketplace." Read more »

It looks like Arkham Asylum could be the dark horse of this year's sales charts, as Eidos and Warner report the Batman game has begun its run by shipping 2.5 million copies to retailers since its August 25 debut.

A recent LA Times article pegged the game's sales at 2 million, though it did not specify whether that number represented sales to customers or retailers. Read more »

For those that aren't already playing it, here's a friendly reminder that the free Batman: Arkham Asylum DLC is coming out today.

The "Insane Night Map Pack" includes two new challenge maps, dubbed "Totally Insane" and "Nocturnal Hunter."

Read more »

With the first batch of downloadable content for Batman: Arkham Asylum due out this Thursday, September 17, publisher Eidos today unveiled exactly what it will entail.

Available as a free download on all three platforms (PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360), the "Insane Night Map Pack" will bring two new challenge maps to Rocksteady's game. Read more »

With Eidos having revealed that Batman: Arkham Asylum is to get a new downloadable add-on next week, Sony has now said that a second will appear the week after.

September 17's downloadable pack is dubbed "Insane Night," Sony Europe's Mike Kebby noted on the PlayStation.Blog. A second add-on, "Prey In The Darkness," will apparently follow on September 24. It is not yet known if the second pack will be a free multi-platform download, but the first one has already been confirmed as such. Read more »