It isn’t often that we get a world exclusive here on What The Christ? but that’s exactly what’s happened here this evening. A longtime fan of ours who happens to be employed at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment just confirmed to us in an email that Rocksteady Studios is already working on a third game in their wildly successful Batman series.

The as-yet untitled new game, which will run on the same instance of Unreal Engine 3 as the first two, is a direct sequel to Arkham City. Rocksteady co-founder Sefton Hill is once again the project lead. The game is still in early stages of development however the story is more or less complete and the release is currently scheduled for late 2012.

Our source also shared with us that the game will feature a “co-op or multiplayer element” but that a final decision hasn’t been made on that piece, yet.