Joker Playable in PS3 Arkham Asylum

While exclusive third-party titles among this generation of systems are few and far between these days, exclusive content seem to be picking up that slack as extra incentive/ire for respective console owners, a lot of which have been overwhelmingly in favor of the Xbox 360 – ie, the exclusive “Lost and Damned” DLC for GTAIV, the plethora of new Fallout 3 content, etc. This time, however, it seems as if PS3 owners are being thrown a bone: a new ad for RockSteady’s upcoming Batman: Arkham Asylum on Sony’s Playstation Home service has revealed that the PS3 version of the game will allow players to play as the clown prince of crime in a few “exclusive Joker challenge maps.” It also makes it explicitly clear that these maps will “only” be on the PS3.

Since this hasn’t been announced beforehand, with clues that the advertisement may have gone up a bit earlier than intended, the exclusive maps may come as a surprsie to would-be owners of the game. We’ve already seen the PS3 get a similar deal with Mirror’s Edge – an exclusive DLC map in addition to the bundle that was released, so it wouldn’t be entirely unusual if this PS3-only content remains just that. Whether the 360 will receive its own exclusive set of maps with another character is something that I’m sure the PR behind the game will address shortly.