WB Games suspends sales of Batman: Arkham Knight, citing widespread reports of 'performance issues'
"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," the company posted in its support forum, which has been flooded with complaints of the game's performance. "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 company pleaded for gamers to have patience while it fixes the performance issues, but it also encouraged those dissatisfied with the new game to file for a refund.
"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."
The move comes just two days after the game was released to critical acclaim. The game has an 89-percent rating on Metacritic; those reviews, however, were all based on the PlayStation 4 version.
The PC version has been plagued by reports of stuttering, crashing, shimmering, and horrible performance despite running on PC that far exceed its minimum system requirements. WB Games had already engaged in damage control by acknowledging that the sub-contractor that ported the game from console to PC was working on fixes. WB Games had also recently restated the minimum system requirements for the game, increasing the level of hardware required to play it. But all that did was cause gamers to complain that the company had only done that after many had already paid for it.
Despite the damage control, gamers have mercilessly hammered the game. On Steam, almost 8,000 people have given it a thumbs down.