The PC version of Batman Arkham Knight has been removed from sale following multiple performance issues. The game was pulled from Steam this morning, with Warner Bros Games promising it was "working diligently" with both Nvidia and AMD to identify and fix the known issues as quickly as possible.
Arkham Knight, which launched on Tuesday, has been received extremely well by critics, but those playing the game on PC quickly noticed it wasn't performing half as well as its console counterparts on PS4 and Xbox One. Not only is the game locked to 30fps, but cutscenes have often reportedly fallen to single figure frame rates. Indeed, turning the camera in our own PC review copy has often turned into a slideshow of motion blur. Likewise, Eurogamer has since spotted that several graphical effects on the console versions, such as reflections and rain drops on Batman and the Batmobile, aren't present on the PC version, adding yet more fuel to this disastrous turn of events.
Warner Bros. Games' Gary Lake-Schal issued the following statement on Steam to try and appease disgruntled PC owners, offering refunds "if desired" for those who aren't satisfied with their experience:
"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 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."
For those still struggling to play the game, Warner Bros has updated its minimum and recommended specs requirements. The minimum specs are as follows, but as you can see, they're not particularly lightweight:
- OS: Win 7 SP1, Win 8.1 (64-bit Operating System Required)
- Processor: Intel Core i5-750, 2.67 GHz | AMD Phenom II X4 965, 3.4 GHz
- Memory: 6 GB RAM
- Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660 (2 GB Memory Minimum) | AMD Radeon HD 7950 (3 GB Memory Minimum)
- DirectX: Version 11
- Network: Broadband Internet connection required
- Hard Drive: 45 GB available space
With this setup, Warner Bros expects you'll be able to achieve the following performance levels, which needless to say, aren't particularly inspiring:
- Resolution: 1280x720
- V-Sync: Off
- Anti-Aliasing: Off
- Texture Resolution: Low
- Shadow Quality: Low
- Level of Detail: Low
- Interactive Smoke/Fog: Off
- Interactive Paper Debris: Off
- Enhanced Rain: Off
- Enhanced Light Shafts: Off
- Expected: 30fps (capped)
"It is incredibly important that users with a min spec video card with 2 GB of dedicated VRAM (or 3 GB on AMD) to keep the Texture Resolution set to Low," said Warner Bros. "Increasing this to Normal will cause significant performance issues. By default, the game may set the user’s monitor to the maximum output offered. Users should reset to 720p on min spec hardware. With these settings on Min Spec AMD GPU’s, users can expect some minor texture pops, occasional loading symbols during fast-paced scenarios, and some hitches & stuttering when gliding or driving the Batmobile."
As for the recommended hardware specs, (which comprises an Intel Core i7-3770, 3.4 GHz or AMD FX-8350, 4.0 GHz, 8GB of RAM, and a 3GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760), you're still looking at turning off all the visual effects and running everything on normal:
- Resolution: 1920x1080
- 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
This, according to Warner Bros, is "intended to deliver an experience on par with the current generation of gaming platforms." However, Warner Bros still warns that anyone playing with an AMD card can still expect "some minor texture pops, occasional loading symbols during fast-paced scenarios, and some hitches & stuttering when gliding or driving the Batmobile. To help alleviate this, AMD users using Rec Spec GPU’s should turn Texture Resolution, Shadow Quality, and Level of Detail to Low. We continue to work closely with AMD to resolve these issues as soon as possible; make sure you have the most current drivers and check back here for updates on when the next driver version is available."
It's also possible to remove the 30fps cap by altering the game's .ini files, but unsurprisingly, Warner Bros strongly advises against this, as it will "potenitaly negatively impact performance, including frame rate and stability." Warner Bros also advises against using Nvidia's GeForce Experience or AMD's Gaming Evolved Optimisation tools.
Either way, the PC version of Batman Arkham Knight is in a very sorry state indeed and should never have been released like this. We'll update this article when it's back on sale and have had a chance to try out the patch for ourselves.
