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Warner Prioritizing DLC Over Fixing Arkham Origins' Bugs

D(L)C Universe

No, that headline isn't backward. Maybe the reverse is happening in one of DC's other million-billion (though no longer billion-finity) universes, but not this one. Batman: Arkham Origins swung into action bogged down by a slew of diabolical bugs and glitches - some of them game-breaking - and our own boy man wonder Adam grappled with a decent many. On the upside, there have been some patches, but even a cursory glance at various forums shows that progress-halting issues have yet to be eradicated. So then, why is developer Warner Bros Montreal already moving on? Infuriatingly, because it's too busy making new things it would like you to spend money on.

Warner Bros Montreal explained its plans for the rather hollow sequel/prequel in a forum post:

"The team is currently working hard on the upcoming story DLC and there currently are no plans for releasing another patch to address the issues that have been reported on the forums."

"If we do move forward with creating a new patch, it will try to address the progression blocking bugs for players, not the minor glitches that do not prevent one from continuing to play. The issues that are not progression blockers will unfortunately no longer be addressed."

But that's only an if. And yes, I know it's important for dev teams to continue forging ahead on DLC because otherwise publisher money stops flowing (and then, inevitably, lay-offs strike with BIFFZOTT-ing ferocity), but there's got to be a better way here. If a decent number of your customers are reporting that they flat-out can't play portions of your game, then it's a huge slap in the face to disregard them in favor of people who were able to, you know, finish the game. What good is DLC to them? So now you have a crowd of players that might have otherwise purchased said downloadable super shenanigans, but instead they're stuck out in the cold.

Maybe it'd slow progress on the DLC a bit, but couldn't Warner at least devote a small band of developers to bug isolation and obliteration? As is, this seems unacceptable to me. It's insulting to fans who spent money on the game, and it'll certainly make some people wary of dropping dollars in the future.

I really hope Warner decides to change that "if" to a "when," and I think they'd be wise to do so sooner rather than later.

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