Arkham Knight relaunch next week, including DLC

[Master Disaster]

Batman: Arkham Knight will be re-released on October 28th, just over four months after it was pulled from sale for launching with big performance problems, publishers Warner Bros. announced today. After months of interim patches fixing it up for folks who bought it while it was available, they’re planning one big final patch including extra content that has since arrived for console versions.

Arkham Knight makes a strong case for delaying PC versions rather than pushing them out half-finished – while it worked okay for some, many players were plagued with awful performance. The game came out on June 23rd, and was pulled from sale the very next day. Rumours say WB knew full well that it was rubbish before release, though of course they’ve never said this themselves. The PC version was outsourced but it seems awfully unlikely that WB wouldn’t have known about its problems, and if they didn’t then they clearly hadn’t tested enough. Either way, WB messed up.

Anywho! Today’s statement says:

“At 10 am PDT, Oct. 28th, Batman: Arkham Knight will be re-released for the PC platform. At the same time we’ll also be releasing a patch that brings the PC version fully up-to-date with content that has been released for console (with the exception of console exclusives).

“This means that next week, all PC players will have access to Photo Mode, Big Head Mode, Batman: Arkham Asylum Batman Skin, and character selection in combat AR challenges.”

Its great gobs of Season Pass DLC will launch alongside the re-release too.

I do wonder how much it’ll cost when it returns. Four months after its initial release, and with the big autumn releases like Fallout 4 approaching, I expect it’d be getting big discounts on the weekend sale circuit by now if it hadn’t been pulled.

Sauce: http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/10/24/batman-arkham-knight-pc-re-release/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rockpapershotgun%2Fsteam+%28Rock%2C+Paper%2C+Shotgun%3A+Steam+RSS%29

So the saga finally ends. Let's see if they can get it right this time.

[Guest Kloaked]

If one of you Batman game players gets it or you already own it, let us know how it runs.

[Master Disaster]

If one of you Batman game players gets it or you already own it, let us know how it runs.

It's much better right now with the interim patch.

My worry would be them releasing a huge patch next week and breaking it again.

[Commander Llama]

Even though my hype for this game has fossilized by now, I must commend them for admitting how bad they fucked up and spending half a year fixing it.

[Master Disaster]

Even though my hype for this game has fossilized by now, I must commend them for admitting how bad they fucked up and spending half a year fixing it.

I'm not sure they've ever actually admitted they fucked up or have ever apologised either.

[jaggysnake57]

Steam sale fodder

[AlexGoesHigh]

Even though my hype for this game has fossilized by now, I must commend them for admitting how bad they fucked up and spending half a year fixing it.

I feel the only reason they fixed it is due to insane amount of bad press they got during launch, that or there's some legal shenanigans that it would be worst for them to just pull it out of sale, not fix it and never sell it again.

[razor767]

Well I hope the port is good, otherwise I won't waste my time and money. 

[Guest Kloaked]

It's much better right now with the interim patch.

 

How much better? Is it playable?

[Pesmerga]

as I did with the previous batman games, I'll buy it when it gets down to 5€

[VagabondWraith]

How much better? Is it playable?

It is, I'm near the end. Although sometimes I get stuttering and hitching, like FPS drops to the mid 30's ~ 40's, it's playable if you can get past those annoyances.

[dragosudeki]

Probably one of the most embarrassing releases to date. I'm more interested if they will recover the PC gaming base that strayed away from that game because of all the problems. Surprising that they didn't reward the players that stuck out, possibly giving them some FreeLC or something.

[Derangel]

Probably one of the most embarrassing releases to date. I'm more interested if they will recover the PC gaming base that strayed away from that game because of all the problems. Surprising that they didn't reward the players that stuck out, possibly giving them some FreeLC or something.

 

I'm sure a good number of people will point to Mad Max as proof of WB changing their ways, even though there is no chance in hell that Mad Max's PC version was in any way effected by AK's. If WB stays true to their word people will come back but it will be interesting to see the numbers their next big PC release pulls in.

[Humbug]

I'm sure a good number of people will point to Mad Max as proof of WB changing their ways, even though there is no chance in hell that Mad Max's PC version was in any way effected by AK's. If WB stays true to their word people will come back but it will be interesting to see the numbers their next big PC release pulls in.

Publisher may be the same.

But Mad Max (including PC version) was developed by Avalanche Studio which has ~250 employees.

[Derangel]

Publisher may be the same.

But Mad Max (including PC version) was developed by Avalanche Studio which has ~250 employees.

 

I know. I figured anyone reading the post would know all the reasons why Mad Max's PC version being really good had nothing to do with Arkham Knight.

[Helly]

Right... A patch, which adds dlc. So they can get money for it again. Also, FINAL patch meaning no more after this?! No mention at all about the promised crossfire/sli support. This will be interesting to say the least....

[Humbug]

I feel the only reason they fixed it is due to insane amount of bad press they got during launch, that or there's some legal shenanigans that it would be worst for them to just pull it out of sale, not fix it and never sell it again.

A lot of people were refunding it and giving negative reviews on steam.

They probably figured they would make more money by waiting a few months and fixing it.

Which means better user reviews. =more sales.

And people not asking for refunds means they get to keep the money.

 

Either way, they did the right thing after screwing up.

[kuddlesworth9419]

I don't think many people will buy it now unless there is a crazy price cut. 

[ShadowCaptain]

Hopefully its fixed now then I can finally stop boycotting it and buy it!

[ravneillal]

A lesson learnt. Dont release games if they are in alpha state. If the price is still the same i doubt people will bother buying this.

[asker509]

Even though my hype for this game has fossilized by now, I must commend them for admitting how bad they fucked up and spending half a year fixing it.

Yeah the same thing happened to me once the skyrim dlc finally got to ps3 I never bought it

[Humbug]

So on the 28th when they patch it and release; is that only a content patch? Or does it contain bug fixes and optimizations?

[Lethal Seraph]

I'm betting this is gonna be cheap, selling it for a loss from previous projected profit. It would be ridiculous to price this as much as the original launch considering how much of a shitstorm WB took.

[ConnorDahne]

If one of you Batman game players gets it or you already own it, let us know how it runs.

Haven't played it in about a month or so..

It was definitely playable, sli support wasn't the worst I've seen, but the frame rate is still capped.

It was at 90fps, so could be worse and may be fixed on release day.

Didn't experience any crazy memory leaks, and stuttering/lock ups seemed to be all but gone.

All and all, playable but not game of the year 10/10 ign material..

I've got about an hour and a half playtime in it, and probably won't put much more into it but that's due to not caring for the story which is subjective.

[mlecruz]

It's back on Steam now and it seems people are still having problems.