Telltale’s Batman Will Be The First to Experience the Multiplayer Treatment

Telltale Games has always focused on the narrative side of its titles. Well-known for the likes of The Walking Dead, The Wolf Among Us, and Minecraft Story Mode, the strong storylines and decision-based progression of the single-player campaign has been a hard-hitting driving force for its titles.

Now, the studio is looking to expand how it delivers games by incorporating a multiplayer side, starting with the upcoming Batman game.

Dubbed as Crowd Play, the feature was first revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con 2016. Just like in other multiplayer modes, this means having more people in the game with you. What makes this different is that many others will join you in making decisions for what happens next.

According to Shacknews, the idea came about in the studio as an observation of its games. The way it goes is simple. Crowd Play allows two possible outcomes via modes. The first will allow for a "majority rules" decision as the option, while another will let one person have the final say despite the majority's opinion.

Telltale Games Head of Creative Communications Job Stauffer acknowledged that Crowd Play will allow people to get into the game at the very start of every game. This brings to perspective the tendency of players to ask other friends or fellow players on what should be done next when playing a decision-based title.

"We wanted a better way to integrate that audience. Now from two to 2,000-plus people can help the player make decisions."

The Crowd Play feature has been confirmed for the upcoming Batman title. But the developer has also hinted that all of Telltale Games' titles will have this feature.

For me, the interesting part is the "2,000-plus" aspect of Telltale's statement. Even for a ballpark number, that is huge. It seems that this may be for game streamers, though latency issues had been cited.

Crowd Play reminds of what Twitch Plays Pokemon essentially was, albeit with a more refined and definitive set of mechanics. The percentage and majority rules aspect of the game will ensure that there won't be a lot of time wasted, but we remember how Twitch Plays Pokemon became a thing—enough to let the players enjoy a lot of the Pokemon games as a crowd-based play.

Let's see what happens with this one. It's a nice play on a narrative-heavy title, and perhaps the best way through which a multiplayer feel can be neatly incorporated.

Read: The LEGO Batmantrailer is out.

Watch the Honest Trailer for Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice.