Still set for release on August 2 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC/Mac, Batman – The Telltale Series Episode 1: Realm of Shadows has been delayed on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, with Telltale saying those versions will now launch “later in August.”
The Season Pass Disc for Batman – The Telltale Series, which includes Episode 1 on-disc and access to the remaining four episodes as they’re released for download, is still set to launch on September 13 in North America and September 16 in Europe for PS4, PS3, Xbox One, and Xbox 360. The iOS and Android versions will also go live on September 13.
With Batman, Telltale will be debuting their new Crowd Play multiplayer feature. Back when it was first detailed, Telltale suggested that two to 2,000 players could participate. In a new update on their website, they’re now stressing that Crowd Play is a local multiplayer mode designed for four to 12 players sitting in the same room, watching the same screen:
The most important point is that Crowd Play is a local multiplayer experience. It’s designed for everyone to be watching the same screen, at the same time, in the same room and works best with 4-12 people. Technically, it can support thousands of players, but they still need to be watching the same screen at the same time. This is mind blowing in a theater full of fans, but we don’t expect you can fit 2000 of your closest friends in your living room so we’ve designed everything for smaller groups. For now, leave the larger groups to us, and stay tuned for more details on special events for Crowd Plays of larger sizes!
Crowd Play is not a feature intended for use over streaming services. There is latency introduced by services such as Twitch. This means that everyone isn’t seeing that game at the exact same time, which means that everyone doesn’t see the choices at the same time. So, the group can’t make a choice together at the same time. We are working closely with all the streaming services to address this problem, but it certainly won’t be ideal for streaming out of the box. For now, everyone needs to be in the same room, watching the same screen.
Crowd Play can be hosted on PS4, PS3, Xbox One, Xbox 360, and PC/Mac. You activate it by selecting the Crowd Play option from the bottom of the screen in the Episodes menu, and hosters will need a Telltale account. People can then join by entering a unique Game Code on the on-screen web address using their phone, tablet, laptop, or desktop computer.
[Source: Telltale Games (1), (2)]
