Damnit! I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was looking to get home from work today, to sit down and play the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight in all it’s glory. But no, sadly that wasn’t to be as the release wasn’t just bad it’s horrible. There are thousands upon thousand of upset PC gamers that aren’t able to either play the game beyond 30 fps, although there is a fix for that, or not being able to play the game at all.
Compounding the issue is that if you pre-ordered the game from Steam, Green Man Gaming or another outlet, you aren’t able to get a refund for the game however if you recently picked it up (after the official release) then you can at least get a refund from Steam. Outside of refunds is another issue with is quality control. How many months has this game been development? Why weren’t some of these issues caught? Why is there a 30 fps limit imposed? What’s with the SLI stuttering issues and frame-rate drops? Why the sudden change to the requirements to play the game especially right before the launch (we’re talking moments)? Going further than that is why was Iron Galaxy Studios involved? Wait, did I mention Iron Galaxy, in a Batman game? Well yes I did actually, but why?
Yes, the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight was apparently not handled 100% by Rocksteady and somehow Iron Galaxy Studios is involved. This is new, something that was not mentioned at all during the development phase nor was it mentioned via PR or press releases. We only found out about it once all the trouble started and even then only when Warner Bros attempted to do some damage control and brought Iron Galaxy into the picture.
“We’re aware that some users are reporting performance issues with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight,” reads the statement.
“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.”
How much of the game was developed by Iron Galaxy Studios is unknown at this time, but we do know that initially there was no mention of a second studio handling the PC release. Needless to say that everyone who owns a copy of the title isn’t taking the issues to kindly and to further drive this point home, you have to look no further than on the games Steam page – here. There’s over 3000 angry owners over there and that isn’t the only place I’m sure. All in all this is a bad situation, one that needs to be corrected as soon as possible. For Warner Bros. they already had one messed up Batman release with Batman: Origins, which eventually did get fixed but now this. And for Rocksteady, the once great savior of this generation of Batman games, this oversight seems to be tarnishing their name, well at least for PC gamers anyway. Hopefully they’re able to correct the issues that are plaguing the PC version and the sooner the better.
UPDATE: There’s quite an uproar over at the PCgaming subreddit regarding this as more details about Iron Galaxy’s involved has been unsurfaced. You can read this over at https://www.reddit.com/r/pcgaming/comments/3au0hf/the_pc_version_of_batman_ak_was_outsourced_to/.
Needless to say we’ll hold off on our review of the PC version until they correct the issues or we’ll pick it up on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One for review. Especially since the console versions of the title are looking and performing quite well.
