Warner Bros. Insists that All Catwomen Be Paid for New and Be Connected to the Internet

I see no problem with this as I will be buying new. I can't wait.

Ahh, this is actually refreshing. I wanted to play a Batman game as fucking Batman, and didn't much like the idea of being taken out of that and forced into playing Catwoman. Since I'll be renting this game on Tuesday anyways, now I don't even have to worry about it. (Although, the dudes at the rental store always give me the online pass codes and such from the box when I ask, assuming I'm there first, so I don't ever have to pay for this bullshit!)

I'm really excited for this game, but there's no way I'm paying for a single-player only game. I can rent it for a week for $8 and complete all the side missions and everything, so why drop $60? It's laughable, IMO.

I bet 6 month from now we will see the first "Offline Codes"....

I have a really hard time getting how used game sales are hurting publishers and developers that much. It all seems like a money-grab to me. I understand that they don't get any money from a used game sale, but I feel like if your game is good enough, people will buy it new. I think the solution to this is just to make better games. But I could be mistaken.

Instead of removing content, from the core experience, it needs to clock out a bunch of challenge maps. This way they can sell it as an incentive for purchasing new rather than a punishment for purchasing used.

As for asking for a constant internet connection. This is several steps in the wrong direction. I do know a few people who are buying this game NEW FOR £40!!!! who have no constant internet connection. They can get online to activate the pass if they take their console elsewhere, but how the fuck are they going to play that content they fucking payed for?

This won't directly affect me, but I stand by the argument that if I am going to part with that much money for an entertainment product, I want to do it on my own fucking terms.

Well played, WB, well played

Without commas, the title of this story had me confused for a minute.

Also, I gotta say that the "You need to be online to play the dlc" is pretty dumb as when it was required to play the "free-lc" from Guitar Hero 3.

@iAmJohn said:

@Lazyaza said:

The whole "used games sales are terrible for developers" thing is buuuullshit, always has been.

Ssh, don't say that out loud, people might actually realize you're right and stop clinging to that stupid argument.

Someone in the thread we had about this before Alex wrote this story legitimately tried to argue that used sales are worse than piracy. What the fuck.

You know who makes that kind of argument? A pirate.

Yearrgh.

Nowadays, it's getting quite difficult to judge a game based solely on gameplay. Honestly, I'm getting to the point when I hear that a game insists that I go through an inconvenient/redundant DRM that I'm just not going to play it at all, regardless of how awesome it could potentially be.

Is it that it requires an internet connection to play or just redeem the content? If it is the former I can see that being frustrating. Otherwise I think this is a perfectly reasonable way for publishers to insure returns on the ever increasing expenses of this big budget games.

Though I have always been of the mindset 'fuck the people too stubborn to move with technology like the rest of us.' If you still don't have internet - not Xbox Live Gold, just plain old internet - then you are already missing out.

Video games aren't like food or water, you don't need them to live. Get over your entitlement. If you pay for the game (at full price), you get everything. If you don't have an internet connection, then you should work on that before buying video games.

This time you have gone too far, Joker!

The Sad thing is the corporation has already trained us to accept the fact we are power less to rebel. But these protests give me belief all is not lost.

On the PC, don't care.

Wait I thought Catwoman would be like an unlockable character and you could choose her instead of batman for the main story when you're going a second time through but I guess I was wrong, I just wonder if I buy the game a year after that on steam will I still get her?

Well done, you ass holes. I was gunna rent it.

Huh...honestly, all I got is, "It should be 'effect change."" Sorry.

I don't keep my 360 connected to the internet so I can avoid ads. So this is a real bummer to me, seeing as I'll have to connect it every time I want to play the Catwoman levels.

I can somewhat understand making this a new copies only sort of thing, but why the need to have the console connected to the internet? Once the code is in the system and the "DLC" is validated on my console, I really shouldn't have to keep it connected. You know, like how every other DLC works.

In short, Warner Brothers, quit being such fuckers.

So wait...if you buy it new you'll get it anways for free?

@Lazyaza:

I agree to some extent, but I love how piracy is stealing, but giving/lending to a friend isn't.

Lending - Someone buys game, shares with people

Piracy - Someone buys game, shares with people (albeit more than you could physically lend to)

I don't claim piracy is recommended, but the idea that it is stealing has always been quite ludicrous. Does the sheer volume of people you share your game with through piracy make it immoral? The fuck?. So if I were to pirate a game, I should feel guilt over accepting someone else's generosity?

Comparing piracy to walking into a store and stealing is ridiculous. If you're stealing, you walk in somewhere and take something from a shelf, then leave. Immoral. To relate that same example, with piracy, someone would walk into a store, LEGITIMATELY BUY a product, take it home and share it with people. Hardly immoral. If you find piracy immoral, then the next time you lend a game to a friend, remember to think of yourself as a criminal.

Back on topic, the publishers think this will get them more money from people deciding to buy new, when in fact all it does is cause most people to pass on the game entirely. They might see a slight increase, but revenue hovers around the same.

@HatKing said:

Is it that it requires an internet connection to play or just redeem the content? If it is the former I can see that being frustrating. Otherwise I think this is a perfectly reasonable way for publishers to insure returns on the ever increasing expenses of this big budget games.

Though I have always been of the mindset 'fuck the people too stubborn to move with technology like the rest of us.' If you still don't have internet - not Xbox Live Gold, just plain old internet - then you are already missing out.

Video games aren't like food or water, you don't need them to live. Get over your entitlement. If you pay for the game (at full price), you get everything. If you don't have an internet connection, then you should work on that before buying video games.

+1 couldn't said it better myself.

People who are complaining should put themselves in the position of publishers and developers.... guess what this is a business and it sucks when people buy your product used and you don't get any profit from it (or rent it for a marginal return on your investment). Even though you spend a shit load of time and resource and care building and promoting it.

The elaborate pre-order dance pisses me off more than this, I pretty much always buy games I care about new. Though I am amused that they felt Catwoman was important enough to make the cover of Game Informer, but not important enough to be playable without this online pass thing.

@theveej:

In some ways it's incredibly sad that we've gotten so used to getting stepped on by publishers that some people now even fucking defend it. Oh, what a world.

@chaosnovaxz: just saying if I was in their position I would do the same (not the constant internet connection that is stupid)

If you tell me you wouldn't do the same then good for you I guess.

@ItBeStefYo said:

@msavo: why would you like them?

Why wouldn't I like them?

@theveej:

I totally understand where they're coming from. I just think they should try to attack the major retailers (they can't get all the small ones, obviously) to get returns on used sales, because the gamers enjoying their product everywhere are just trying to save a buck wherever they can, while the middlemen reap enormous profits.

I just wish there was some sort of legislation that would require Gamestop, etc., to pay back a percentage of games sold used.

Buy the game then pirate all the preorder stuff is what they're saying I should do, right?

It's certainly what it sounds like they're telling me to do.

don't care, i'm buying this new anyway. take all my cash warner bros~

@Lazyaza: You should be sad at yourself for writing three paragraphs in the comment section of a news article. Take a step back, look at the surroundings beyond the screen, and think about what you just did.

@spartanman1222 said:

if it's on the disk, and i buy the disk, then i should have access to it. period. if they want to restrict then just make it $10 DLC. how about they make their beef with used game sales companies rather than with customers. buttholes.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

I was under the impression that Catwoman was incorporated into the main campaign? If so this is very odd.

It does make the choice simple for non-online gamers though, just buy the game used instead and save a few bucks.

Damn you! Damn you all the HELL!

At first I was outraged, then I realized my console is always on the net, so I'm comfortable with this.

This is kinda messed up, but then again I was always gonna buy this new so it doesn't effect me. Plus if it means that Rocksteady gets more money through second hand sales instead of the likes of Gamestop getting it I call it a win win.

If its to redeem content its OK but playing single player, offline stuff always connected to the internet is bloody ridiculous. WB did an OK job with MK onlinepass so I'm going to guess its just to redeem a code or something. If not... well, I'm no wizard, but this looks fucked up

Is it actually confirmed you need to be online constantly or is it just the once to redeem the code?

The online connection thing is pretty lame I must say. Doesn't matter to me, but sucks for those that don't have there systems online.

so buy new to play as catwoman. i dont find this as bad as all the costume pre order crap that there going to eventually bundle up and sell anyways.

Don't care,I'm still buying it new.Day one baby!

This is dumb. I get online passing it... but always connected to the internet. So stupid.

Man, how did video game companies ever even make money in the days before non-transferable online licenses?

Oh, right... games only went up to one "A" back then.

Dark times.

I dont mind at having to buy a new copy of the game to access the stuff, i totally get and respect that, people have the right to buy pre-owend stuff but if they end up with stuff missing then that is their fault as they chose to buy it that way. What i do object to is this constant internet connection nonsense, i have a pretty decent provider, but every now and again it craps out on me, so am i to understand that i could be playing my game happily for 6 hours and then bang, my net connection drops and i get booted from an offline game? Really? Seems like they are clutching at straws with this, and its only ever going to end badly.

Also, there are a ton of people out there, more than you might think, that buy games and never use the in-box codes. I've bought numerous used games off of Amazon merchants, etc., for dirt cheap that came with the online pass or DLC codes or whatever, so if you do some looking, you can usually get around this. It doesn't really affect anyone at launch. Even if you're renting it, just look inside the case, most places leave the inserts there. The always-connected thing, though...ugh.

Wait. I thought the Catwoman missions were part of the storyline. Are they... not?

I am kinda worried now that the PC version won't get the Catwoman DLC.

The selfish part of me doesn't really care. This game is going to be awesome and I never buy used. But another part of me feels really weird about all this online pass/DRM stuff that goes on nowadays.

Piracy sucks no doubt and I get why publishers don't love the used games market, but I feel like the counter-measures these companies use sometimes end up penalizing legitimate customers just as much as pirates. And it sucks that simply lending this game to a friend or renting it from Gamefly will lock a person out of this content.

@Cornman89 said:

Wait. I thought the Catwoman missions were part of the storyline. Are they... not?

I think they're just side missions/extras... I'm sure it just involves Catwoman detouring off on her own while Batman resumes his mission, and if you have the code or whatever you will play through what Catwomen was doing. You'll still encounter her in the story if you dont have the code or whatever, but just wont play as her.

@fullmetal5550: I'm sure pc will still get her

God, this is probably a GOOD game, does it really need this crap?