The Batman: Arkham games have always been known for their secrets. In addition to being amazing love-letters to the franchise, the team over at Rocksteady Studios always manages to hide little surprises for the hardcore fanbase.
In the first game, Batman: Arkham Aslyum, Rocksteady Studios managed to hide plans for the game's sequel in an unmarked room. The Easter egg basically announced Batman: Arkham City years early - or it would have, had anyone been able to find the secret. After months of waiting, the studio was worried that no one would ever find the Easter egg, and actually revealed it themselves; a developer revealing such a secret had simply never happened before.
It seems that Rocksteady is just too good at hiding its secrets: just over three years after Batman: Arkham City was released, the studio has revealed one final Easter egg. While it may not reveal Rocksteady's plans for the next game (which wouldn't make much sense, considering Batman: Arkham Knight has already been announced), it's certainly a doozy. While the first game's secret could have been found eventually, it's doubtful that anyone would have been able to find this without a little help from the developers.
The first clue came from a short video on YouTube via user JG Jour. The video showed Batman villain Calendar Man sitting in his cell, reciting unique dialogue while the Dark Knight watched on. Normally, this wouldn't mean much - Calendar Man spends the entire game doing just that and nothing else - but the dialogue was something completely new from anything fans had heard previously, and since there was no content update to the game (which would've been noticed by the community), the speech would have already been in the game to start with.
Unfortunately, the video clip stops before the speech is finished. The description reads "There's something unwritten from Calendar Man - the world has yet to know. Telling outright would spoil the fun; a tease will suffice for now." which prompted many fans to speculate that Rocksteady themselves had released the clip. 'JG Jour' was also believed to be a fake name: the name can be translated to Julian Gregory Day ('jour' is French for 'day'), which is the Calendar Man's true name.
The only other clue was the user's profile picture, which showed a calendar and the date July 17. This would ultimately be a ruse, though it did provide a hint: the full secret would be tied to some specific date - after all, Calendar Man had a list of specifically-timed speeches in the past. Knowing that testing every single date would be impossible, the users over at Batman Arkham Videos began looking through important dates for the Batman: Arkham series. Release dates, character birthdays and even days relating to Rocksteady Studios itself were all considered.
Eventually, it was found that the speech in question was triggered by changing the gaming console's clock to Dec. 13, 2004. It seems random at first, but the date actually refers to when Rocksteady Studios was first formed by Sefton Hill and Jamie Walker. Calendar Man is all about celebrating birthdays, and it seems that Rocksteady's special day is no different.
The speech in its entirety can be seen below, and it's definitely not something anyone would celebrate a birthday with:
As for Rocksteady's next project, Batman: Arkham Knight, the game is scheduled for release on June 2, 2015.
