When I first heart that a new Batman game was being developed, I was skeptical at best. The Dark Knight has always been among my favorite comic-book characters, and I’ve never really felt like any games did the caped crusader real justice. Then, Batman: Arkham Asylum came out, and it blew me (and most of the gaming community) away with how well it was actually designed and how enjoyable it was. Add Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill into the mix and Arkham Asylum quickly became a jewel for video games. Arkham City followed soon after, and it was an equally good game, albeit not entirely revolutionary. But hey, why change something that works, right?
With Batman: Arkham Origins, things changed, or rather, didn’t change. Not that it was necessarily a bad game, but it was considered to be an obvious a cash-grab, being announced and released surprisingly fast after Arkham City. There was nothing revolutionary about it, and it seemed to rehash the same elements of the previous titles without adding anything noteworthy to the experience. The story-line was actually rather good, but it simply felt like more of the same, and with both Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill leaving the cast, it left players with a sour taste. Or perhaps that wasn’t the big issue, and everything simply revolved around the multitude of game-breaking bugs.
And buggy it was. If I’d associate Arkham Origins with anything, I’d compare it with Battlefield 4. Different games, different audiences, but definitely rushed releases in both cases. But where DICE is putting everything on hold to fix Battlefield 4, Warner Bros. seems not to care. As per recent posts on the official forums of Arkham Origins, the developer and publisher is not planning to fix a seriously broken game. “The team is currently working hard on the upcoming story DLC and there currently are no plans for releasing another patch to address the issues that have been reported on the forums”.
Now, I usually try to be objective about the news I report, but I personally find it revolting that such a well-known publisher would display such an attitude to disappointed fans. The uproar on the internet following these statements has been significant, and rightly so. These are not just fan-boys nagging for minor and insignificant issues. The game actually still faces severe problems, ranging from corrupted save files on the Xbox 360, crashes, progression-breaking bugs, content that cannot be accessed because of bugs or crashes, and so on. Sure, it’s not surprising, the game has been released without proper QA testing, that much is certain. But the fact that Warner Bros. doesn’t even appear to care is disturbing. Are fans and customers really that disposable? Isn’t putting future DLC’s on hold for a month or two and releasing them to a satisfied community more profitable? I’m no marketing expert, but I’m pretty sure this attitude will cost them significantly sale-wise on their future DLC’s and titles.
They still MIGHT consider fixing the severest of bugs and somewhat allow players to access the content they have paid for, but that’s pretty much it. And I underline “might”, since it’s obviously not on the top of their to-do list. “If we do move forward with creating a new patch, it will try to address the progression blocking bugs for players, not the minor glitches that do not prevent one from continuing to play. The issues that are not progression blockers will unfortunately no longer be addressed. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused for some of you, and want to thank you for having been patient.” states the official announcement on the Arkham Origins forums.
To add insult to injury, Batman: Arkham Origins’ upcoming DLC won’t be launched on the Nintendo Wii U, which is not only insulting to Nintendo-using Batman fans, but also caused Nintendo some serious headaches. It turns out, many Wii U players of Arkham Origins purchased the game’s Season Pass, and Nintendo is now forced to refund them in full.
So, in other words, Warner Bros. is going for the cash cow, and they are going to try to milk it dry. Instead of setting things in order first, they are practically lifting a finger towards their customers, and it’s not the thumb. I’ve never felt too hostile towards the studio before, but I’m seriously disappointed to see how Batman: Arkham Origins fans are treated. “Patience” doesn’t seem to be rewarding in this case, as the game you’re trying to love is still going to be broken and bugged. But hey, you can buy a DLC for Arkham Origins, and perhaps get some new crashes for variety’s sake.
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