[Update 2] In response to all of the issues the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight is currently having, publisher Warner Bros. has decided to halt all sales of the game for the platform.
In a post on the company's official forums, WB Games explained:
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.
Thank you to those players who have already given valuable feedback. We are continuously monitoring all threads posted in the Official Batman: Arkham Knight Community and Steam forums, as well as any issues logged with our Customer Support (support.wbgames.com). 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 (Steam refund policies can be found here: http://store.steampowered.com/steam_refunds) or the retail location where you purchased the game.
The Batman: Arkham fans have continually supported the franchise to its current height of success, and we want to thank you for your patience as we work to deliver an updated version of Batman: Arkham Knight on PC so you can all enjoy the final chapter of the Batman: Arkham series as it was meant to be played.
[Update 1] Steam has been flooded with disappointed fans with the page receiving 4,923 negative reviews, more than twice the number of positive reviews. The game's PC page on Amazon currently sits at a 2-star rating. Online retailer Green Man Gaming will process refund requests for Batman: Arkham Knight if the upcoming patch currently being developed by Warner Bros. still does not amend the game.
Warner Bros. recommends that PC players drop the graphic settings to the following to reduce the number of freezes and slowdowns:
Resolution: 1920×1080
V-Sync: On
Anti-Aliasing: On
Texture Resolution: Normal
Shadow Quality: Normal
Level of Detail: Normal
Interactive Smoke/Fog: Off
Interactive Paper Debris: Off
Enhanced Rain: Off
Enhanced Light Shafts: Off
~Ed. Nick Tan
[Original] Here we are at launch night of one of 2015's biggest titles, Batman: Arkham Knight. At this point we were hoping that we'd have a review of the PC version up, but we are yet to receive a copy. Instead, Warner Bros. Interactive has decided to send us the PS4 version of the game last minute. That can't be a good sign.
With this in mind, it comes as no surprise that Batman: Arkham Knight's PC version is a disaster. Speaking to a friend of mine who has been playing it, he shared that during his hour of play the game ran with a 30 frames per second cap. I almost didn't believe him at first given Rocksteady Studios' strong PC history, but a quick look at the game's user reviews on Steam reveals that there are a lot of unhappy customers.
The 30 frames per second cap is only the beginning of the issues. Those who have removed the 30 frames per second cap via a quick .ini file edit have found themselves with a high frame rate deviation even on rigs sporting high-end hardware. It appears that the game is severely unoptimized, with AMD graphics cards in particular struggling to run the game anywhere near the fluidity you'd expect from a modern AAA game.
Let's look at a few of the popular user reviews so far to get a better idea of how midnight launch experiences fare. Remember that these are based off initial impressions due to release being fewer than two hours ago.
User Review #1
User Review #2
User Review #3
Due to the overwhelming number of complaints, we can't recommend purchasing Batman: Arkham Knight on PC for the time being. We'll wait for an official statement from Warner Bros. Interactive to find out just what happened here, and if there's a hotfix planned in the near future to remedy the issues.
