Warner Suspends Sales Of Batman: Arkham Knight PC
Holy Rusted Metal
In an absolutely extraordinary move, Warner Bros. have announced they're to stop selling Batman: Arkham Knight on PC until they've fixed the massive technical issues so many are having. Posting to their forum, they stated, "We take these issues very seriously and have therefore decided to suspend future game sales of the PC version while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards."
News that Arkham Knight's PC port was not good enough came almost as soon as the game unlocked on Steam. Negative reviews poured in as players realised it barely ran, even on top notch systems. After a while, people found workarounds, NVidia card users realised they could switch pretty much everything off and get a playable version, and then the voices of a confused few could be heard saying it worked fine on their system. But still, it was clear the game was not in any fit state to be released.
Rocksteady acknowledged the issues late on the first day, but underplayed them in the usual "some users" way, and then implied the blame laid at the feet of the hired hands who'd ported the PC version. This all sounds particularly sloppy when you consider how implausible it seems that Warner/Rocksteady didn't know there were big problems with their PC code. No PC review code was sent out, while console code was with reviewers in time for a day 0 judgement - that's always mighty suspicious. Further, people quickly realised the game had been locked at 30FPS, in what seemed like a rushed attempt to hide the framerate struggles. It clearly didn't work.
Now, three days after launch (with all those crucial day one and two sales in their pockets), Warner have announced they're pulling the game from sale on PC.
"We want to apologize to those of you who are experiencing performance issues with Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. We take these issues very seriously and have therefore decided to suspend future game sales of the PC version while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards. We greatly value our customers and know that while there are a significant amount of players who are enjoying the game on PC, we want to do whatever we can to make the experience better for PC players overall."
They go on to say they're monitoring all the feedback on forums, and point out that you can request a Steam refund, before concluding,
"The Batman: Arkham fans have continually supported the franchise to its current height of success, and we want to thank you for your patience as we work to deliver an updated version of Batman: Arkham Knight on PC so you can all enjoy the final chapter of the Batman: Arkham series as it was meant to be played."
We've repeatedly contacted PRs representing Batman: Arkham Knight, and haven't received so much as a "no comment". We've asked them if they knew about the issues before the game was released, and why it went ahead without any warning, but they haven't replied.
Which brings us back to that repeated refrain: Never. Pre-order.