The release of Batman: Arkham City this week marks a nice success for Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, a division of the movie studio that started out with the less than popular The Matrix Online, and has slowly built up an empire that includes the Batman franchise, the Lego video games, and the Mortal Kombat series. The LA Times has a short profile of the company, and goes into detail on how it worked with studios like Traveller's Tales and Netherrealm to build up popular video game franchises that stand on their own even compared to the movie products.

That's not to say that the plan always works (remember the Green Lantern game?), but Warner Bros. seems to have built up a few solid properties independent of tie-in movies. The next, then, is apparently a Hobbit game -- the article says there will be a game based on Peter Jackson's movie sometime next year. The company will also release a Lego Batman sequel, and some other casual online games featuring Warner characters.

Oh, and there's one more: an unannounced game based on a different DC superhero. Has anyone else been J'onzzing for a Martian Manhunter escapade?