DLC is getting outrageous. Nay, it already is outrageous. Now with many triple-A releases, players cannot even access the content on the discs they buy without paying extra, without agreeing to buy a “season’s pass” of DLC or worse, and online pass to get all of the game. This is the case with Batman: Arkham City which does not let players play the Catwoman campaign content unless they input an online ‘VIP’ pass code.
This does several things. It guarantees more money for the publisher, Warner Bros. Interactive, and it also hinders the user experience. What happens when there are issues with the DLC codes and they do not work? Hell, what happens if the DLC codes don’t even ship with new games as planned? This is exactly what is happening with Rocksteady’s Batman: Arkham City.
The forums and internet community is heating up as more and more users who pre-ordered the title or picked up the Collector’s and standard editions of Batman: Arkham City report errors with their DLC codes and in some cases, no code at all with a blank printed sheet included in their copy. There are even some reporting getting two of one code, but not of the other they should have gotten.
It reminds us of when Ubisoft forced DRM on PC gamers to be always online – what happens when the servers crash? People, the letitimate good buyers, get screwed over and that’s what’s happening to some people right now.
We have no idea as to what extent these errors and missing codes reach, but Warner Bros. Interactive is aware and looking into it, as evidenced by this tweet from last night.
“We are aware that some people did not receive the Catwoman code in their game. You will get to play as the sexy thief, stay tuned for update.”
Maybe they’ll just give it to everyone? Has this happened to you? No one on the Game Rant staff has had this issue, thankfully.
My solution, but it’s a bit out there: People pay for the game and get all of its launch content.
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Follow me on Twitter @rob_keyes.
Sources: Batman Arkham City Forums, Warner Bros. Interactive
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I feel bad for the letitimate buyers too
The advent of the internet has brought with it some truly horrible things, the fall of spelling/punctuation/grammar, the truly horrid invention of “hilarious” memes (which aren’t even funny by the way unless you’re an absolute idiot, then I guess you are easily amused)…. but nothing more horrendous than DLC. Its ridiculous that certain games have entire levels deleted from the disc just to release later at almost the same price as the game, as was the case with tomb raider i believe a few years back.
I refuse to use DLC free or otherwise, Its money grabbing and spits in the face of the fans…. (though saying that I did pre-order and will probably succumb to getting Robin, but it will anger me to no end and add one more negative association in my mind with the boy wonder)
oh, how I miss the days of my Sega Mega Drive/Genesis
You Mad Bro?
Scumbag Steve
lol wow dude u need to really learn how this world works money makes the world go round buddy get use to it
haha I know how it works dude fear not.
Doesnt mean we have to agree with it… just missing the days of pre-online gaming when a 32-bit game could last your a year ahhhh innocent times…
..but then I was too young to drink beer so its not all sunshine and rainbows on either side of the fence
My Catwoman dlc code worked just fine (although I wish that I had known that Best Buy was giving out Robin with their copies). But, I totally agree with you. The whole dlc mess is just that, a mess. What happened to the days where all the content was already in the game and you just had to play it and beat certain missions to unlock goodies? It’s really ridiculous. It really should stop in my opinion. Release a highly anticipated game like Arkham City and put all the bonus goodies as unlockables within the game.
I picked up the Collectors edition at best buy, I had no problems with my codes or the DLC. Only problem was I was so excited to play the game, but it took almost half an hour to get all the downloads. I had the catwoman, robin, iceberg lounge and the dark knight returns skin to all download. I read that you want to have the catwoman dlc downloaded before you start playing because it adds a lot, so i decided just to download and install them all before i started playing.
I think this new trend is pretty lame though. I kind of understand it for this game with things like the robin dlc, and iceberg lounge and the dark knight skin and all that because those are extras based on where you buy and what you buy, but i don’t understand why the catwoman was like that, it should just be part of the disc. Same goes for the new trend of having to download the online multiplayer pass for other games like resistance 3 did. That just doesnt make any sense to me.
As far as Arkham City goes, I could really care less though because this game is just so friggen awesome i would have jumped through whatever hoops they wanted in order to play lol I’m just glad my codes worked.
If they are going to make us deal with DLC and content we can only get by pre-ordering then they should at least get it right. All the people that got messed up or missing codes should get any additional content for free.
I picked up my reserved Collecter’s edition from BestBuy last night, I opened it & it had all that was said to be there.
Though I’ve heard that pple are getting it w/ a number of things missing.
But as for the DLC issues, I only did the Catwoman pass, which f*XeD up about halfway thru the download & had to restart.
But then it downloaded & worked fine.
I’ve also heard the Robin DLC codes arent working for the majority of pple, I have yet to attempt to download it or any of the other treats in the Collecter’s edition.
I figured I just get the Catwoman VIP thing done then just play the game & wait a week or so b4 I download the rest of the DLC.
Let Microsoft & Sony sort out their issues.
& I am saddend that some people cards w/o codes.
DLC is getting ridiculous nowendays.
But it’s money to companies, so I doubt it’ll slow anytime soon.
I picked mine up from Wal-Mart and they give you the GOTY Edition of Arkham Asylum as well oh and my DLC worked just fine.
I was in too much of a hurry to play it before I went to work, and forgot to punch in all my dlc. Now I’m scared. I have the collectors addition from game stop.i have like eight codes I have to redeem. :/
it worked for me
My Catwoman code worked, but my Robin code didnt. Im a little upset.
All my codes worked for me. Catwoman, Animated Series skin, and Joker’s Carnival DLC. Only issue I had is that I couldn’t play as long I wanted to.
Ya.. i got the collectors edition and didn’t get the code for the Catwoman DLC, i’ve been think so far that im just not looking in the right place, but now i know that i just didn’t get it
oh well, maybe they’ll make it free or something on PSN.
Hopefully the death of this crap, and hopefully they make one of the upcoming money gra- I mean DLC packs free. Sucks for the thousands of you effected by this or just not having your console online to download this stuff.
Well at least you all have the game. PC gamers can’t pick it up until mid-November. Just pre-ordered it today…
Apparently Xbox users can only redeem their Robin codes after the 21st of October.
Also, if you’re missing a DLC code, try checking the store receipt. Some stores print them on that.
I got the steelbook edition and all the dlc works perfect