Warner Brothers say Batman: Arkham Knight PC fixes "will take some time"

[midian182]

The PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight shipped with so many problems that it was pulled from sale last week. Unfortunately for those who bought the game it seems a fix "will take some time". The update, posted by Warner Brothers Interactive's vice-president of game technology Gary Lake-Schaal, leads with:

"Rocksteady is leading our team of developers and partners as we work on the PC performance issues that players have been encountering. The work is significant and while we are making good progress on improving performance, it will take some time to ensure that we get the right fixes in place."

A list of the key areas being addressed was also shared:

• Support for frame rates above 30fps in the graphics settings menu
• Fix for low resolution texture bug
• Improve overall performance and framerate hitches
• Add more options to the graphics settings menu
• Improvements to hard drive streaming and hitches
• Address full screen rendering bug on gaming laptop
• Improvements to system memory and VRAM usage
• Nvidia SLI bug fixes
• Enabling AMD Crossfire
• Nvidia and AMD updated drivers

An initial patch for Batman: Arkham Knight is now available on Steam. It addresses some of the game's minor faults, such as fixing a bug which disabled rain effects and ambient occlusion, as well as correcting some issues that caused the game to crash.

The PC isn't the only platform that will be receiving Arkham Knight updates. The game's director, Sefton Hill, tweeted:

To clarify: PC is top priority for engine team but there'll still be updates for consoles too. Not all issues are fixed by same people.

— Sefton Hill (@Seftonhill) June 26, 2015

The console versions of Batman: Arkham Knight received positive reviews from critics when it was released last week, but a poor porting job rendered it unplayable for many PC gamers. It later came to light that Rocksteady didn’t handle development of the game on PC, and that Warner Bros chose to outsource the project to Iron Galaxy Studios.

With Warner Brothers giving such an ambiguous time-frame for when Batman: Arkham Knight will finally be fixed on the PC, we expect the number of people demanding a refund to continue rising. Even if the game is eventually patched to the point where it becomes an improvement over its console counterparts, it's unlikely to placate those who feel ripped-off at buying a title that was so poorly tested before launch.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/61156-warner-brothers-batman-arkham-knight-pc-fixes-take.html

 

[psycros]

You would think that these ***** devs would put a LOT more priority towards the most popular game platform, the PC. If they don't offer refunds then Rocksteady and WB's gaming arm need to go under.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

You woulda thought Wornout Bros woulda taken heed from the mess Ubi made with AC Unity... Sadly they suffered from amnesia. All they did was make a lot more work for themselves and upset a lot of PC gamers. I wonder if Bethesda is gonna follow in those same footsteps with Fallout 4, I wouldn't be at all surprised if they did.
These are the kind of pitfalls created by the abomination that is called pre-ordering.

 

[Guest]

I thought they were developed on a PC like all Console games that have gone before and they don't develop for the PC because they get paid not to by Sony or Microsoft .if I was Nvidia I'd be pissed by now with all the free Batman's they've promised...

 

[9Nails]

Seems that shipping a shoddy product is acceptable knowing that you can patch it through an Internet update. I don't agree that this is good business. The list of items being fixed look like things you do 3 to 6 months before the product ships. I think that they were simply pushing the release date too hard. For why I wonder? There isn't any block buster tie-ins that I'm aware of.

 

[noel24]

From what I've heard they havn't ironed out all of Origins problems so I wouldn't keep expectations too high.

 

[davislane1]

You would think that these ***** devs would put a LOT more priority towards the most popular game platform, the PC. If they don't offer refunds then Rocksteady and WB's gaming arm need to go under.

Popularity isn't the problem. Game studios are businesses and the PC, popular as it may be, doesn't keep the lights on. So says CD Project Red, anyhow. http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Witcher-3-Wouldn-t-Exist-Consoles-72064.html

 

[Evernessince]

You would think that these ***** devs would put a LOT more priority towards the most popular game platform, the PC. If they don't offer refunds then Rocksteady and WB's gaming arm need to go under.

Popularity isn't the problem. Game studios are businesses and the PC, popular as it may be, doesn't keep the lights on. So says CD Project Red, anyhow. http://www.cinemablend.com/games/Witcher-3-Wouldn-t-Exist-Consoles-72064.html

That's not quite what CPProject Red stated and it almost feels like your trying to say that CDProject thinks the PC isn't a "good enough" platform. What CDProect did say is that very few AAA games are being made for any one platform due to the sheer size of modern games. In order to make the best games possible, one must leverage all revenue sources. Bigger Gamers = Bigger Budgets = More Platforms.

 

[davislane1]

That's not quite what CPProject Red stated and it almost feels like your trying to say that CDProject thinks the PC isn't a "good enough" platform.

You're reading between lines where there are no gaps:

Popularity isn't the problem. Game studios are businesses and the PC, popular as it may be, doesn't keep the lights on.

The games PC gamers complain about not being developed for PC, or "gimped for consoles," cannot be profitably developed without tapping the console market. This is exactly what CDPR stated. It has nothing to do with PC being "good enough" and everything to do with it being profitable enough for the studio to meet its financial needs.

 

[Hammayon]

This problem is not new. So many games come out with bugs that need fixing. One example was The Evil Within. If you waited like 2 months, you could get a PC version that removes the black bars, remove the framerate caps, and improved the graphics. Plus by that time there is DLC packaged in with it as well.
The longer you wait, the higher chances you will get a version that has had the bugs tweaked out or the game has been optimized to work with AMD and ATI crossfire/SLI setups.
Look what they did with GTA V. They took over a year to bring out a high end pc version. It was enhanced much much more than consoles. Way better than PS4 and XBOXONE versions too. I was very happy with it. Companies that release games too soon think the PC community is ok with poor console ports. Not anymore. You better make a game worthy of playing on PC.

 

[Kevin82485]

It will take me some time to buy this game...I just can't support a developer that releases an incomplete game. I would have respected them more if they would have just said "Sorry, guys, the PC version isn't up to par. We will need to delay the release by a month." All they have done for themselves is create negative publicity and hurt sales numbers. Is that really worth releasing a game before it's ready? I wish these Publishers and Developers had the balls to delay a game when it is obviously not ready. At least it would show that they had some respect for the gamers buying the game. What they did is just disrespectful and insulting.

 

[BabyFaceLee]

I would have respected them more if they would have just said "Sorry, guys, the PC version isn't up to par. We will need to delay the release by a month."

One of the problems here (and elsewhere) is that it appears they don't even know it's not up to scratch until it's been released. This is even more worrying. Why don't they know? Because they don't invest the time in understanding potential issues and formulating the right questions let alone obtaining the answers. Twas ever thus.

 

[PigSkinYtBoy]

You would think that these ***** devs would put a LOT more priority towards the most popular game platform, the PC. If they don't offer refunds then Rocksteady and WB's gaming arm need to go under.

The hell are you talking about? PC is the LEAST popular platform for AAA games the majority of the time. There's a reason why devs give pc late ports or broken ports. Even CDPR said that Witcher 3 wouldn't be as big as it is without consoles. A lot of kids keep throwing around the "PC most profitable/popular" statements without mentioning that most "PC sales" are just indie garbage for tablets.