14 DAY TRIAL // Batman: Arkham Knight was supposed to be one of the early contenders for Game of the Year, the swan song of a celebrated series and the final title in the franchise that Rocksteady would work on, a title that fans have been waiting for ever since Origins failed to live up to its own pre-launch hype.
Those who have picked up the Xbox One or the PlayStation 4 versions of the experience have been having a good time with it over the past few days, but for PC gamers, the most recent launch from Warner Bros. has been a nightmare and the company has not gone far enough to apologize and to compensate them.
When Batman: Arkham Knight was first delivered via both digital distribution and retail chains earlier in the week, gamers started reporting issues with the decryption process for files that were part of the pre-load and with the graphics.
It initially seemed that the ATI cards were those affected, but after a few hours, it became clear that the game could not maintain a solid framerate even on the most powerful of Nvidia hardware.
Warner Bros. took a long time to react and it initially suggested that the problems were not affecting all PC gamers and that some patches would be enough to fix them.
Relatively quickly after that, the publisher made a U-turn and announced that it was suspending all sales of Batman: Arkham Knight on the PC for the moment.
Gamers need to get refunds right now
The measure that the company implemented has been praised by some gamers, who believe that it shows maturity and a sincere desire to work with the community to solve the problems generated by Batman: Arkham Knight.
But Warner Bros. should go the extra mile as soon as possible and issue full refunds to all those who have paid for the PC version of the title, while letting them keep the game in their libraries and play it, if they can.
It is simply unacceptable for a company to launch a game in such a state, regardless of the platform, instead of simply making a clear choice to announce and implement a delay.
Warner Bros. did not want to pay for the bad publicity associated with a PC delay, and it is only logical that the publisher be forced to compensate those who received a broken experience.
The company knew about the problems associated with Batman: Arkham Knight
Creating and launching a video game is a complex process, and there are numerous moments when companies can make mistakes that result in issues when a title gets in the hands of its fans.
Complex Quality Assurance processes and beta testing periods have been required for the biggest of modern AAA releases, and even then, the likes of Halo: The Master Chief Collection or Assassin's Creed Unity had problems.
But Batman: Arkham Knight is on a whole different scale when it comes to being broken, and Warner Bros. needs to go beyond an apology to make things right with the PC community.
The fact that the PC version is no longer sold also shows what a folly it actually is to place a pre-order for a video game, even for a major one that is being created by a developer with a solid pedigree.
In a few, Batman: Arkham Knight can be remembered as a landmark moment in the history of video games as long as players seize the opportunity and are vocal enough to persuade Warner Bros. to do the right thing and offer those who got the PC port a full refund as soon as possible.