Batman: Arkham City Nearly "4-5 times bigger than Arkham Asylum"

Arkham Asylum was big. Arkham City is bigger.

With the highly anticipated Batman: Arkham City nearing its release date next year, details are starting to emerge on the superhero sequel.

In an interview with Official Playstation Magazine UK (via CVG), Rocksteady Studios boss Sefton Hill confirmed that the game is even bigger than its predecessor.

"Without a doubt, the hardest part of moving the game setting from the confines of the asylum into the urban sprawl of Arkham City was simply building the environment.

"Our objective in this game is not to make the biggest game we can, but to make the best game possible. Gamers who played Batman: Arkham Asylum will know how dedicated we are as a studio to injecting an incredible amount of detail into every environment we build.

"It is this attention to detail that gives our games the deep and intense atmosphere that so many players have found so compelling, and so we have had to seriously scale up our art team in order to bring the same level of detail to Arkham City, which is about 4-5 times bigger than Arkham Asylum."

With recent reports suggesting that Arkham City is finished and undergoing final polishing, things are looking good for the Batman game series. Batman: Arkham City will release on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC in Q4 2011.