You can no longer buy the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight, one of this year’s biggest game releases.
Publisher Warner Bros. has taken drastic action in light of the PC port’s problems — it is more or less unplayable on anything other than cutting-edge hardware — suspending digital and physical sales of the game. It’s a huge move, given what a big release Arkham Knight is for the studio, and Warner Bros. is already telling unhappy gamers where they can get refunds. Arkham Knight isn’t the only recent big release plagued by problems at launch, but it seems a quick patch isn’t going to be enough to fix the last of the Arkham trilogy.
Warner Bros. shared a statement on the Arkham Knight forum explaining the move:
“We want to apologize to those of you who are experiencing performance issues with Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. We take these issues very seriously and have therefore decided to suspend future game sales of the PC version while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards. We greatly value our customers and know that while there are a significant amount of players who are enjoying the game on PC, we want to do whatever we can to make the experience better for PC players overall.”
The publisher said that it is working on delivering an updated PC version of the game — although there is no time frame for this — and it directed players to places they can get refunds:
“If you purchased your copy of the game and are not satisfied with your experience, then we ask for your patience while these issues are resolved. If desired, you can request a refund at help.steampowered.com or the retail location where you purchased the game.”
An employee at the U.K. retail chain GAME confirmed to Eurogamer that the game has already been removed from store shelves, in accordance with instructions from Warner Bros.. “We have the stock,” they said, “but I’m not allowed to sell it to you.”