Batman: Arkham City will not feature Bruce Wayne, Rocksteady Studios has confirmed.
Dax Ginn said: "It's a Batman game. He's powerful and aspirational but you never lose sight of the fact that he is mortal. It's such fertile ground and in Arkham City we will go deeper into the man behind the cowl by bringing in characters like Hugo Strange, who knows Batman's true identity, and Talia al Ghul, who has a romantic relationship with him.
"Through those characters we see his vulnerable side but our aim has always been to make an action game, not a business simulator, and when you start thinking about what you would do while playing as Bruce Wayne, it doesn't seem terribly exciting in comparison."
Arkham City's structure doesn't really lend itself to a Bruce Wayne segment, anyway. Batman is trapped inside a walled-off section of Gotham filled with the city's most vile criminals. He's pretty much in "battle mode" the whole time. There's no reason for him to remove the cowl.
Batman: Arkham City is set to be released on October 21st, later this year, on Microsoft Windows, Onlive, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360