14 DAY TRIAL // Batman: Arkham Knight launched last week on June 23, worldwide, for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One platforms. While console owners got a quality experience that ran fine and delighted through its mechanics, PC users were served a terrible version of the game with major performance issues and all sorts of bugs and errors.
Since then, publisher Warner Bros. suspended the game's sale on the PC, while developer Rocksteady started working hard on fixing the game's horrible performance on the PC platform so that fans can actually enjoy the long-awaited title.
Given all these staggering developments, you really have to wonder as a gamer in general, not just as a PC fan: why wasn't Batman: Arkham Knight delayed on PC?
Did no one at Warner Bros. and Rocksteady actually start the game?
At no point during the development of Batman: Arkham Knight did Warner Bros. or Rocksteady say anything about the PC version. As soon as the game launched and the problems appeared, a statement was offered saying that Rocksteady only handled the PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game. The PC edition was handed to an external studio that still hasn't been named.
While rumors point to Iron Galaxy Studios, the developer who also ported Batman: Arkham Origins to PC, things are still unclear.
What is obvious is that, apparently, no one at Warner Bros. or Rocksteady actually started the game's PC version on a regular computer. Even on high-end configurations the game has terrible performance, with the framerate dipping all over the place, especially when you get into the Batmobile, which is required quite often if you want to progress.
Throw in the crashes and errors that would have been impossible to miss by any competent tester or quality assurance representative, and it seems that all the studios involved just don't care about the PC version.
Delays prove they want quality but PC version shows they don't care
Batman: Arkham Knight got extra development time so that Rocksteady can accomplish its vision for this final chapter in the series. The game was set to appear last fall but got delayed several times to early June. Even that seemingly final release period got pushed back a bit until the end of last month, to complete the optimization process.
As such, it's staggering to think that Warner Bros., Rocksteady, and the PC studio responsible for the porting process decided to ship the game on the computer platform, alongside the PS4 and Xbox One versions.
Yes, it's arguably harder to make a game for PC due to different configurations and other reasons, but most users are aware of these things and many of them won't be angry if a game gets delayed for a bit on their platform. They will, however, get furious if the game they bought at full price doesn’t work as promised.
Rockstar Games released GTA 5 on PC two years after it launched it for the PS3 and Xbox 360. However, when it did finally appear, it worked very well across many computers, had a series of stellar visual effects, and was praised by fans.
According to the latest report, it seems that, literally, Warner Bros. didn't care about the PC issues reported by its testing and QA department, and launched the game thinking users wouldn't run into them.
A few weeks or months to ensure that Batman: Arkham Knight handles as expected on PC wouldn't have broken the proverbial camel's back. However, with this debacle, Warner Bros. has lost its credibility with the PC community, and Rocksteady, even if it wasn't involved, has a lot of work to do in order to save not only its reputation but also the actual game.
One patch is already available for Batman: Arkham Knight on PC, but many problems are still present and have to be resolved before it's actually a playable and enjoyable experience.