Batman Arkham Knight pulled from Steam

[Dark Drakan]

In yet another case of a AAA game launching broken (only for PC it seems) the eagerly awaited new Batman title Arkham Knight has been pulled from Steam after many issues at launch. As reports came out of the games poor performance even on high end GPU's it turns out that Rocksteady outsourced the PC versions development to 'Iron Galaxy' (better known for its console work on games like the PS3 version of Destiny and the Xbox One's Killer Instinct). They also handled the infamous PC version of Batman: Arkham Origins, which also suffered from numerous bugs and performance issues at launch many of which were never fixed in favour of more DLC.​

 

[Gikoku]

Oh man, this release was an absolute disaster on PC. Simply mind-boggling.

This is what happens when you shamelessly outsource a port and on top of said outsource, slap it with a rushed deadline. WB is so out of touch with this industry and painfully corporate. How did they not expect anything bad to come of this? This isn't even the first or second time they've done this. Arkham Origins, Mortal Kombat X, the list goes on.

Thank goodness for Steam Refunds, I can guarantee this wouldn't have gotten this far if such a feature didn't exist. First AAA game to get recalled since FFXIV, jeez.

 

[Dark Drakan]

With this being in the ever growing list of issues with WB titles and their reputation sinking fast, hopefully they will make some changes before they do irreparable damage.

 

[Gikoku]

With this being in the ever growing list of issues with WB titles and their reputation sinking fast, hopefully they will make some changes before they do irreparable damage.

I'm not gonna bank on it, if anything they'll just saddle the porting responsibility onto Rocksteady instead of outsourcing it like Square-Enix does. But I definitely don't see them changing any of their other greedy tactics, not when knuckleheads keep pre-ordering and buying half-assed DLC impulsively.

The only way they'll properly wise up is if more folks start applying logic to their wallets.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Well the refund policy on steam certainly gave them a nice shock with revenue drop I'm sure.

 

[Gikoku]

Well the refund policy on steam certainly gave them a nice shock with revenue drop I'm sure.

Oh definitely, I know many folks have been abusing the heck out of the feature wrongfully. But there's still some users out there that have used it appropriately and this was indeed one of those appropriate moments. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it gives me some peace of mind knowing that I now have that helpful option for whenever.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Oh definitely, I know many folks have been abusing the heck out of the feature wrongfully. But there's still some users out there that have used it appropriately and this was indeed one of those appropriate moments. I haven't tried it myself yet, but it gives me some peace of mind knowing that I now have that helpful option for whenever.

Heard the patch isnt due out until Fall too which is rather shocking.

 

[Gikoku]

Heard the patch isnt due out until Fall too which is rather shocking.

Ugh, hopefully it won't be one of those patches that just ends up making the game even worse. Fix a hundred issues, cause a hundred more.

 

[Foxtrot94]

Heard the patch isnt due out until Fall too which is rather shocking.

And says a lot about how incomplete and untested the port was.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Late update on this news but an update did come out for the game on PC

UPDATE 4th Sep 2015: Warner Bros. has released the Batman: Arkham Knight PC patch properly this time.

The promised "interim" patch is now available to those who already have Batman: Arkham Knight for PC, while the game itself remains off sale.

Here are the patch notes:

• Reduced frame-rate hitches.
• Optimisations for system memory and VRAM usage.
• Improved performance on all GPUs (requires the latest drivers).
• More comprehensive in-game settings.
• Fixed low resolution texture bugs.
• Fixed hitches when running on mechanical hard drives (HDD).

Meanwhile, Warner said it was continuing to work on improving the game for future updates. Here's what's coming next:

• Adding support for SLI and Crossfire.
• Adding support for the latest DLC and Season Pass content.
• Adding support for additional updates such as Photo Mode.
• Continued improvements and bug fixing for a Windows 7 specific memory issue that occurs on configurations with 8GB of system RAM and some Nvidia GPUs during extended game play.
• Continued improvements for Windows 10 specific issues on systems with some AMD GPUs.

 

[Gikoku]

About time, though I don't see anywhere listed about the other graphical issues like SSAO, Rain, etc. Unless I missed that somewhere.

It's going to be a good while until I end up getting this game. The way they've been handling the DLC for this and MKX is just going to make me wait for the GOTY version so I can get everything while saving me some bottlecaps cash.

 

[Foxtrot94]

MKX already has an Ultimate Edition if I remember well, with the Kombat Pack included. 14 euros on G2A, last I checked.

 

[Gikoku]

MKX already has an Ultimate Edition if I remember well, with the Kombat Pack included. 14 euros on G2A, last I checked.

Couldn't find anything about an Ultimate Edition on there (unless it's buried somewhere), there's the Premium Edition which was just one of those "kollector's editions" that came at launch. There's definitely going to be more DLC packs on the way besides the Kombat Pack as well, so I'm certainly going to wait for the complete release.

Also I've read some serious problems with G2A involving their steam keys. Especially with Arkham Knight where people who purchased their keys from there weren't allowed refunds on Steam and Steam terminating keys with other games as well such as Project Cars & Witcher 3 due to not being an "authorized retailer".

 

[Dark Drakan]

Batman: Arkham Knight goes back on sale Oct 28th

Four months after being pulled from sale due to poor performance, bugs and various other inadequacies, the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight goes back on sale next week, along with all the DLC early PC players have missed.​

 

[Gikoku]

Took long enough, too bad for them my interest flew away into the sunset. I'll grab it when it's around $5 during a summer sale, too many other great games that have my attention right now.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Agreed, I was really excited for it and then this happened and my trust for the studio went down so not that bothered anymore.

 

[Dark Drakan]

Just been announced...​

​

Greetings Batman: Arkham Fans! The PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight is back up and available today! We are genuinely thankful to the Batman: Arkham fans, the Steam Batman: Arkham Community, and the PC Players who have patiently waited for this day. As a show of our appreciation to our fans in this process, we are pleased to announce three community focused programs to help us commemorate the re-launch of the game.

To kick things off, we will be giving away FREE digital copies of games from the Batman: Arkham library. This means we will be giving away copies of Batman: Arkham Asylum GOTY, Batman: Arkham City GOTY, Batman: Arkham Origins, and Batman: Arkham Origins Blackgate. The Batman: Arkham library of games will be given to everyone who has already purchased or will purchase Batman: Arkham Knight for PC prior to 11:59 pm PDT, November 16, 2015. We’re actively working with our partners at Valve to make this happen as soon as we can, so watch your Steam Library. We are aiming to deliver all of the games by December.

Seeing as our community was a great help in getting the game up and running, Rocksteady will be creating a new "Community Challenge Pack” that will be given free to owners of the Batman: Arkham Knight game in January 2016. As thanks to the Steam Community, PC players will have access to the maps for a week before they hit the consoles. Stay tuned for more details on this in the Batman: Arkham Community and Social Channels.

Finally, we are thrilled to announce that we are working with Valve and the Team Fortress 2 team for a special cross-game promotion. Through November 16, 2015, Valve will be running a contest for the Steam community to create Batman: Arkham themed cosmetic items for Team Fortress 2. The winning items will be given out to those who purchased Batman: Arkham Knight on Steam before the end of the contest. You can check out the official TF2 blog[www.teamfortress.com] for all the contest details! ​

 

[Dark Drakan]

Well even after the patches and it going off sale for months to be fixed it seems some PC gamers are still having numerous issues with Batman: Arkham Knight so Warner Bros are offering refunds for all customers continuing until the end of 2015. I think they might think twice before doing such a shoddy port and outsourcing a title again after this disaster...

Warner Bros is offering refunds to all Batman: Arkham Knight PC owners​

 

[Dark Drakan]

Warners Bros gives up on Multi-GPU support for Arkham Knight

More bad news for Arkham Knight owners on PC (assuming there are any left), it seems that the promised multi-GPU support will not being coming after all.

We’ve been working with our development and graphics driver partners over the last few months to investigate utilizing multi-GPU support within Batman: Arkham Knight. The result was that even the best case estimates for performance improvements turned out to be relatively small given the high risk of creating new issues for all players.

Since the gains were minimal, likely due to deeper issues with the game and the way it was created from the beginning, the team stopped pursuing multi-GPU support in-case it caused any more issues, just after finally getting the game working to an acceptable standard​