Batman Gets Bricked [Updated] News

The LEGO Star Wars titles have been incredibly successful for LucasArts, Eidos, and Travellers Tales in recent years - the first one continues to fly high in the UK budget chart, and LEGO Star Wars II remains in the Full Price UK Top 30 - so it's perhaps no surprise that other publishers want a bit of the LEGO brick action too.

Earlier today US-based Variety reported that Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has signed a deal with the Danish toy manufacturer to license the iconic plastic bricks in a new videogame: LEGO Batman, which has been pencilled in for a multi-platform release in 2008.

Since Variety's story broke, WBIE has confirmed that the game is in development for next-gen, current-gen and PC next year at Travellers Tales. The story follows the escape of several iconic Batman villains - and only the Dark Knight and the Boy Wonder can stop them...

â??Batman spans several generations as one of the most popular DC Super Heroes, and LEGO BATMAN will appeal to several generations of gamers who grew up idolizing the Dark Knight and playing with LEGO toys,â? said Samantha Ryan, Senior Vice President, Development and Production, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. â??Working with TT Games, we are confident they will continue their LEGO gamesâ?? success with this title, and we will expand our publishing endeavors with the introduction of the LEGO BATMAN franchise.â?

â??Weâ??re sure our fans will be excited to know that we have the same fantastic team at Travellerâ??s Tales responsible for LEGO Star Wars and LEGO Star Wars II working on LEGO BATMAN,â? said Tom Stone, Director of TT Games Publishing.

â??Thereâ??s a special magic to the LEGO incarnation of Batman that makes him accessible to a younger generation of his fans," said Paul Levitz, President, DC Comics. â??We look forward to the videogame version extending this fantasy.â?

WBIE will be publishing the game in North America, but it seems that the outfit won't be using Eidos in Europe - the UK publisher has been responsible for a number of WBIE titles, including Justice League and also brought the first LEGO Star Wars to the UK in 2005. A spokesperson for Eidos confirmed to TVG that LEGO Batman isn't on their portfolio of upcoming titles.