Batman: Arkham Knight PC Version Removed From Retailers and Steam

Update:

Warner Bros. Interactive has decided to pull Batman: Arkham Knight from store shelves, according to Ars Technica. Steam has also stopped selling the digital version of the game as well. Since the game's launch on June 23, PC users have been reporting all kinds of issues with the game, including crashes and extremely unstable frame rates, even when the PC game has a cap of 30fps.

Rocksteady studio head Sefton Hill confirmed what we had all suspected: the PC version of Arkham Knight was actually ported from the console version. The port was done by Iron Galaxy Studios, known for Killer Instinct on Xbox One and the PS3 port of Destiny. Based on its history, Iron Galaxy has much more experience with console games than it does working with PC titles. The last PC game Iron Galaxy studios worked on was the port of Batman: Arkham Origins, and we all remember how many issues that game had.

Don't forget, Warner Bros. Interactive publicly stated last year that they wouldn't be solving Batman: Arkham Origins' game-breaking issues so that the studio could focus on working on paid/premium DLC.

Here's Warner Bros. Interactive's public statement on the matter:

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.

Thank you to those players who have already given valuable feedback. We are continuously monitoring all threads posted in the Official Batman: Arkham Knight Community and Steam forums, as well as any issues logged with our Customer Support (support.wbgames.com). If you purchased your copy of the game and are not satisfied with your experience, then we ask for your patience while these issues are resolved. If desired, you can request a refund at help.steampowered.com (Steam refund policies can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds) or the retail location where you purchased the game.

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.

Original Story:

Numerous players are reporting that the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight is suffering various frame rate and performance issues during gameplay.

Warner Bros. Interactive and Rocksteady Studios have confirmed the performance issues gamers are reporting pertaining to the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight (via Polygon). In particular, many complaints were made at game's frame rate being locked in at 30 frames per second. Players found that if you're willing to tweak Arkham Knight's .ini files you'll be able to increase the game's overall frame rate. A multitude of users have encountered visual stuttering and drastic frame rate dips during gameplay, even when they're locked in at the default 30fps.

WB Games representatives had the following to say about these issues:

We're aware that some users are reporting performance issues with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. This is something that Rocksteady takes very seriously. We are working closely with our external PC development partner to make sure these issues get resolved as quickly as possible.

We'll update this thread when we've got more info to share.

As you would expect, the PC gaming community hasn't been taking this lightly, as many have been voicing out their frustrations with the game online. Since Arkham Knight launched last night, 841 positive reviews were left on its Steam page, whereas 1,903 negative reviews were made.

Here's what one review had to say:

The bad parts are the framerate issues which are all over the place and the batmobile. The game will frequently pause or dip to sub 10 fps on a gtx 970 when entering or approaching new areas. Cutscenes have similar issues to witcher 3 in that while in engine they run at even less fps (by default the game itself is locked to 30, tweakable in the ini files) than the normal game making them stutter or appear stilted.

Summoning the batmobile causes major frame rate drops. At one point I summoned the car to try the batmobile takedown move. By the time the frame rate recovered the batmobile had crushed the pack of guys I was fighting including the Riddler henchman I wanted to interrogate.

As you would expect, Steam suggests that you upgrade your drivers and all the usual troubleshooting actions, but users claim that doesn't change much. This seems to be something more on Warner Bros' end as opposed to the players. Perhaps development on Arkham Knight's PC version was outsourced to an unnamed, third-party studio? The previous Arkham games seemed to work on PC just fine (let's not count Origins).

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