Batman: Arkham Knight PC Version Fixes Not Coming Until Fall
Though the release of Batman: Arkham Knight went rather smoothly for Rocksteady Studios on console platforms, the PC release has been an absolute hot mess since last month. The good news is Rocksteady has taken up the reins from Iron Galaxy, the studio who handled the PC port, to fix up all the issues the computer version has had since it dropped. The bad news is those fixes are likely still months away.
According to a leaked email from EB Games Australia (obtained by Kotaku AU), Warner Bros. has informed the retailer that a patch won't be ready until spring. At first that sounds incredibly damning, but Australian spring begins in September, which means we're looking at six to eight weeks for the update to arrive at the earliest. Given how much work needs to be done, expecting that patch to arrive at 12:01AM on Sept. 1 might be a tad unrealistic.
The memo reads:
As previously advised we have stopped sales of Batman: Arkham Knight PC while Warner and Rocksteady work on addressing performance issues with the game. The latest information from Warner is that the updates won't be available until Spring. Due to this we have made the difficult decision to recall all PC stock from stores to return to the vendor until an acceptable solution is released.
In addition to the game being pulled from shelves (both real and virtual) over seas, Steam has suspended the sale of Arkham Knight on its platform. The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions have both gotten different patches to this point already, but those fixes should be considered rather small compared to the troubles plaguing the PC port. A single patch was put out for the PC, but there are still massive frame rate issues and presentation/performance problems to be dealt with. An unfortunate side-effect of these issues has been the delay of all additional content for the PC version. That means anyone expecting to enjoy the Batgirl DLC or new skins, vehicles included as part of the season pass will have to wait until this fall as well to get their hands on the add-ons.
Batman: Arkham Knight is just the latest in a long line of games released with major quality assurance issues plaguing the launch. From Assassin's Creed to Battlefield to Halo, a fair share of major AAA releases have been marred by troubled launches, with some titles taking months from when they were made available to reach what could be considered a playable state. The idea of ensuring games release no matter what so quarterly reports look great for investors has always been a problem, but as of late, the financial impact has led to a lot of spurned players. Getting games on release day is no longer a selling point, it's a gamble.
Hopefully now that Rocksteady is handling the PC version itself, which after delaying Arkham Knight a few times it should have been doing already, the resolution will be swift. A few months is a long time to wait to play a game you've already purchased, and is still quite unacceptable. While the game may be playable in time for the fall game release deluge, the damage to Rocksteady's reputation will likely linger long after people finally get to drive the Batmobile.
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