Batman: Arkham Asylum commits 2.5 million

Eidos, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, and Rocksteady's Batman: Arkham Asylum has thus far enjoyed both critical and commercial success since its August 25 launch on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Two weeks after receiving high marks from a breadth of gaming sites, Eidos said that the third-person action adventure was rapidly closing in on the 2-million-unit milestone.

With the PC edition of the game debuting last week, Eidos announced today that Batman: Arkham Asylum has now shipped more than 2.5 million units worldwide. Notably, Arkham Asylum stood out among otherwise lackluster US retail sales in August, with NPD reporting that the Xbox 360 edition shifted 303,000 units and the PS3 version sold 290,000 copies during the month.

Last week, Eidos augmented the Xbox 360 and PS3 editions of Arkham Asylum with a free, single-player add-on to the game's Challenge mode. (A PC version is expected later this year.) The add-on included two new maps: Totally Insane caters to action-oriented players, presenting hordes of psychotic inmates that Batman must trounce. Nocturnal Hunter takes the opposite tack, tasking players with staying stealthy while picking off Joker's goons.

Cowritten by Paul Dini, producer of TV's Batman: The Animated Series, the game begins when the Joker leads a revolt within Gotham's notorious sanatorium, Arkham Asylum. As an added incentive, PS3 gamers can play as Gotham City's quintessential madman in the game's Challenge map modes.

For more information, check out GameSpot's previous coverage of Batman: Arkham Asylum.