@HadesTimes said:

Why don't they just include a code to just play the game all ready. We are half way there anyway. This is getting ridiculous.

What I want to know is HOW IS THIS AN ONLINE PASS? There is NO ONLINE CONTENT!

This will probably be one of the best games of the year and Warner Bros feels the need to sully it and Rocksteady with this CRAP!

I agree. Where's the co-op online play if they want to shove a an online pass in our face? This business is getting away with taking advantage of its audience far too much.

Absolutely horrible, so they screw anyone who borrows the game, rents the game, buys it used out of hours of content, not to mention people who buy it new and don't have their console online. I'm definitely not supporting this.

@iAmJohn said:

@Strife777 said:

Ok, maybe I'm not reading properly, but where does it say you have to be online to play those parts?

Uh... how else do you enable an online pass?

Well if you buy it new, you don't need to go online to get it. And if you're stupid enough (I'm talking in general, not you specifically) to buy the game used for 54,99$ and then pay 10$ for the online pass, maybe you don't deserve that content. You might as well pay the 59,99 up front, and give most of that money to the people who actually worked on that content, then give only 10$ to them and 54,99 to a retail company.

I just personally found the title of the thread misleading, thinking it meant you had to be online to play the content, like you had to be to play Bionic Commando 2 for example.

Pre-Ordered it already so..

Yeah well so..

@Strife777 said:

Well if you buy it new, you don't need to go online to get it.

Uh... what? That's the entire point of having an online pass like the Catwoman stuff is tied to - that you need to have an internet connection to redeem said online pass to be allowed access to the content.

I just love the anti-consumer attitude that the consumers have adopted!

Have fun spending $60; I'll be spending $7 during a Steam sale and get the same content.

@Beforet said:

I just love the anti-consumer attitude that the consumers have adopted!

Have fun spending $60; I'll be spending $7 during a Steam sale and get the same content.

The funny thing about this. Say the majority of people buy it when its very cheap specifically because of this, the chances of the publisher believing let alone admitting this was the cause is almost zero. The publisher would instead likely claim there was a lack of interest in the game, or the game should be rebooted, or something.

This seems like it will only effect scumbags and children. It's a good move.

This seems like it will only effect scumbags and children. It's a good move.

@iAmJohn said:

Less than half the Xbox 360s sold have ever connected to Xbox Live.

Well those people are doing it wrong.

They're playing a lot of busted, unpatched games, they're not taking advantage of the fairly well made online multiplayer and community features, and they're missing out on countless amounts of quality DLC and XBLA games that exist. While "I only have dial-up" can account for a small amount of those people, the vast majority of areas that sell Xbox 360s also have broadband Internet. Those people are so oblivious/willfully ignorant of how to get the most out of their console that missing out on one part of Arkham City seems like a drop in the bucket compared to all of the other stuff they're already missing out on.

So what? I'm playing BATMAN: Arkham City, not CATWOMAN: Arkham City. Beyond that, this is basically like complaining that you don't get Minerva's Den for free with a purchase of Bioshock 2.

People who buy used are jerks.

@Brodehouse said:

CD keys. Get ready. Next generation.

I AM ready.

...anyway, do we know if they'll be throwing 'catwoman' up on the market place for $10, for late adopters.

Now tell me, what do you do, if you buy the game new and don't have a decent internet connection? All I CAN get is hughesnet, and the latency is so bad, it sometimes can't even connect to live at all. Not alone do anything. So anybody actually saying this is exactly a good thing, needs to look at the big picture. Not everyone CAN download gigs of information a day

you pay for dlc, pay for unlocks,pay for multiplayer,pay for premium services. Now you pay to unlock single player content. The market tolerates it, seems most of the posters on this thread tolerate it; publishers laugh all the way to the bank.

@thechronodarkness said:

Now tell me, what do you do, if you buy the game new and don't have a decent internet connection? All I CAN get is hughesnet, and the latency is so bad, it sometimes can't even connect to live at all. Not alone do anything. So anybody actually saying this is exactly a good thing, needs to look at the big picture. Not everyone CAN download gigs of information a day

well it seems to be on disc, so it'd probably be a very small download; under 1 mb I think?

This is stupid by WB nobody wants to play as Cat women lol. If it was Batman content im sure much more people would care or consider buying it new.

It's a shame that some legitimate customers won't get Catwoman. However, they won't get their pre-order bonus either, or any future dlc. Internet is all but a requirement for playing games these days. I'm living in the middle of nowhere, and had broadband for years.

On a second note, I just don't get the point of used game sales anymore. I can almost always find a new copy of a game for cheaper than buying used unless the game is new. And the thought that all the money is going to gamestop instead of supporting the product.

@BisonHero said:

@iAmJohn said:

Less than half the Xbox 360s sold have ever connected to Xbox Live.

Well those people are doing it wrong.

They're playing a lot of busted, unpatched games, they're not taking advantage of the fairly well made online multiplayer and community features, and they're missing out on countless amounts of quality DLC and XBLA games that exist. While "I only have dial-up" can account for a small amount of those people, the vast majority of areas that sell Xbox 360s also have broadband Internet. Those people are so oblivious/willfully ignorant of how to get the most out of their console that missing out on one part of Arkham City seems like a drop in the bucket compared to all of the other stuff they're already missing out on.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Let's start with the obvious - broadband penetration is still shit throughout the vast majority of North America and, especially in the United States, becoming stagnant because of the economic crisis. We live in a country where half the United States can't get broadband in their area to the point where we're trying to make Wi-Fi more easily accessible in areas where they either can't run the cables or it's too expensive to do so. It's their fault that they couldn't access this stuff if they wanted to? Even in areas where Wi-Fi is no big deal, what about anyone who doesn't have a Slim? I guess it's their fault too for not wanting to either buy a new Xbox or track down an offensively overpriced wireless adapter, right? And that's not even counting the fact that the 360 is on sale in a lot of countries that have spotty infrastructure and where a private internet connection either isn't really part of the culture or could even be considered a luxury (India, for one; most of Asia, for another). Let me guess - that's also their fault, right?

Holy shit, this is so ridiculously arrogant. There are legitimate issues with tying everything to having an online connection, and the best you can give any of those complains is "well fuck them, if they don't know what they're missing they don't deserve this unrelated thing"? Are you really that fucking unsympathetic to anyone that doesn't live up to your means? I don't even.

what people forget is, is that devs and publisher don't OWE people that buy second hand games ANYTHING... you are NOT there customers.

you are gamestops customer, surely you should be complaining that gamestop have not adjusted there prices to accommodate.

i can understand why people with no internet connection are a little pissed off, but you still get the full batman game to play

People with no internet connections have the right to complain, but if you buy used games you should just suck it up.

I lived in a town of 3,000 people in sparsely populated Western Manitoba, that I left in 2005. We had broadband Internet.

Are there towns in 2011 with gamestops and best buys, but no broadband Internet? How would that even work? You're obviously not ordering from amazon, because you don't have Internet. You're also not posting on Giant Bomb.

@BisonHero said:

@iAmJohn said:

Less than half the Xbox 360s sold have ever connected to Xbox Live.

Well those people are doing it wrong.

They're playing a lot of busted, unpatched games, they're not taking advantage of the fairly well made online multiplayer and community features, and they're missing out on countless amounts of quality DLC and XBLA games that exist. While "I only have dial-up" can account for a small amount of those people, the vast majority of areas that sell Xbox 360s also have broadband Internet. Those people are so oblivious/willfully ignorant of how to get the most out of their console that missing out on one part of Arkham City seems like a drop in the bucket compared to all of the other stuff they're already missing out on.

This is what retards actually believe.

Anyway, don't support this shit: Pirate this game.

Yet another reason for people to pirate the game.

I think the requirement of being online is silly, but whatever...and why is there still multiple threads for this lol

I think this is a great idea. Used game sales are really shitty. If people want to undercut the developers then the developers can undercut them as well. Buy the game new guys. That can mean waiting until the game is on sale for 20 bucks, or on release day.

@iAmJohn said:

@BisonHero said:

@iAmJohn said:

Less than half the Xbox 360s sold have ever connected to Xbox Live.

Well those people are doing it wrong.

They're playing a lot of busted, unpatched games, they're not taking advantage of the fairly well made online multiplayer and community features, and they're missing out on countless amounts of quality DLC and XBLA games that exist. While "I only have dial-up" can account for a small amount of those people, the vast majority of areas that sell Xbox 360s also have broadband Internet. Those people are so oblivious/willfully ignorant of how to get the most out of their console that missing out on one part of Arkham City seems like a drop in the bucket compared to all of the other stuff they're already missing out on.

Are you fucking kidding me?

Let's start with the obvious - broadband penetration is still shit throughout the vast majority of North America and, especially in the United States, becoming stagnant because of the economic crisis. We live in a country where half the United States can't get broadband in their area to the point where we're trying to make Wi-Fi more easily accessible in areas where they either can't run the cables or it's too expensive to do so. It's their fault that they couldn't access this stuff if they wanted to? Even in areas where Wi-Fi is no big deal, what about anyone who doesn't have a Slim? I guess it's their fault too for not wanting to either buy a new Xbox or track down an offensively overpriced wireless adapter, right? And that's not even counting the fact that the 360 is on sale in a lot of countries that have spotty infrastructure and where a private internet connection either isn't really part of the culture or could even be considered a luxury (India, for one; most of Asia, for another). Let me guess - that's also their fault, right?

Holy shit, this is so ridiculously arrogant. There are legitimate issues with tying everything to having an online connection, and the best you can give any of those complains is "well fuck them, if they don't know what they're missing they don't deserve this unrelated thing"? Are you really that fucking unsympathetic to anyone that doesn't live up to your means? I don't even.

Stop being such a bleeding heart. Nothing can cater to everyone and based on your estimations of how this is terrible because guys in India who can't get a decent internet connection, I don't know why you aren't complaining that this exists because some pauper in Somalia can't even afford an Xbox. From what reviewers and previewers have said, the Catwoman sections of the game seem to be pretty small and about as crucial to the final sum as Enter The Matrix was to Matrix Reloaded; a nice addition but nothing special. It isn't as if the entire game is locked down.

Equally, having it locked out on second hand sales is not a bad thing, especially in a business as economically unviable as video games as a whole. The argument has been made time and again; second hand sales contribute nothing to the company creating the game so why should those people cater for people who aren't even giving them the decency of paying for it? The people encouraging the theft of the game just because the developers want people to pay for what they're making is fucking absurd.

I think that they are entitled to some of that money stuff people get sometimes.

@ProfessorEss:

yeah, i agree that some of this stuff is super-shady and just down-right evil. However, in order to support the people who do in fact deserve it(the rocksteady devs in this case) you have to deal with the super-evil corporation. Thats the way of the world, its either give money to the devs and the coropration or give less money to another corporation(Gamestop, Bestbuy, whatever) and I personally like to get games new because yes, it supports the devs and I like new things, especially if its something im interested in.

Also, Piracy

Nice avatar, btw.

I'm as anti-used game as they come, but I still think this is a dick move. This is apparently a single player game's version of "online pass" now? Way to put a cloud over what should be the much anticipated release of one of the best games of the year. Insignificant bonuses and skins are one thing, but actual parts of the game - which are apparently required to complete the Riddler challenges from what Jeff's review says - is ridiculous. Basically there's a huge swath of people who will buy new and never get to experience a sizable chunks of the game.

Hopefully the next generation of consoles will just emulate Steam, so we can cut out used game sales entirely and stop dealing with this crap. Let me install on my system (or buy online), register it with my system, and play without discs.

As soon as you sell your car, we're going to come and take the wheels from it and make the new purchaser re-buy them.

@alexl86 said:

It's a shame that some legitimate customers won't get Catwoman. However, they won't get their pre-order bonus either, or any future dlc. Internet is all but a requirement for playing games these days. I'm living in the middle of nowhere, and had broadband for years.

On a second note, I just don't get the point of used game sales anymore. I can almost always find a new copy of a game for cheaper than buying used unless the game is new. And the thought that all the money is going to gamestop instead of supporting the product.

100% agreed on both points.

If you don't buy used games, why the fuck do you care?

If you don't buy used games, why the fuck do you care?

I'm buying the game new, so unaffected.

Having said that, seems kind of like selling a used dining room set on Craigslist, but removing a leg from one of the chairs since it's used. Sure, you can still use the table, but without buying the set new, you can only use 3 of the 4 chairs.

On the other hand, it's their game, they can do whatever they want to, they're not holding a gun to anyone's head to buy or not buy, and id/Bethesda did the same thing with the sewer levels in Rage.

@9cupsoftea said:

@cstrang said:

If you don't buy used games, why the fuck do you care?

Principle. Not being entirely self-absorbed. Giving a damn about the bigger picture of where the industry is going. Many reasons.

Ppffffftttt. What a wonderfully self-righteous response. It's the newest, less severe version of CD keys. Get over it. Personally, I'm glad. At least this way developers of my favorite games will hopefully still get cash from used sales of their game.

I like this, dont buy used games, simple solution.

I like this, dont buy used games, simple solution.

@WonderboyCoz said:

Sure, some people cant afford to buy games at retail price but if you are buying a game cheaper than say "me", then maybe you shouldnt get all the stuff that I get for buying a game for full price.

Wow.

Once in a while I buy used games - it's rarely "new" used games - but used games that have been out for a while. Usually, it's my way of trying something that I'm not sure I'll enjoy with minimal financial investment. Past games I bought this way were Bioshock and the first Mass Effect - I just wasn't really sold on them. And then after having enjoyed ME so much, I picked up ME2 brand new.

As for this newest Batman, maybe the publisher can say that the content isn't integral to the game's experience -semantics aside whether this is true or not - we're definitely getting closer to that line.

The line being when game companies start fully blocking out parts of games behind online passes - what happens when they all start crossing that line?

I don't buy any games used, but this is despicable.

@9cupsoftea said:

@cstrang said:

If you don't buy used games, why the fuck do you care?

Principle. Not being entirely self-absorbed. Giving a damn about the bigger picture of where the industry is going. Many reasons.

Ppffffftttt. What a wonderfully self-righteous response. It's the newest, less severe version of CD keys. Get over it. Personally, I'm glad. At least this way developers of my favorite games will hopefully still get cash from used sales of their game.

@HandsomeDead said:

This seems like it will only effect scumbags and children. It's a good move.

really? im a scumbag if i wait a few months and get it used for $35 because i have bills and a daughter and dont think a game is worth $60 without tons of replayability? or what if i have gamefly? or borrow the game from a buddy while hes out of town? douchebag.

I wonder how long it'll be before this shit starts to backfire. Setting aside the right and wrong of it for a moment (it stinks), to the casual observer they're just making gaming look like a confusing mess and more hassle than it's worth. I'm a PC and I grew up having to screw around with sound cards and memory types and shit so I'm ok with gaming being a hassle at times, but I also understand why console gaming became so widely popular and everything that's happening now just seems to run counter to those reasons.

I appreciate the industry's desire to kill off used games (not that I agree with it), but I think they're playing with fire here. People just wanna pick up a game -new or used- and know that they can just put it in the console and everything will be included and work. They're going to start turning people off entirely if console gaming becomes a hobby which is perceived to require any kind of effort or research.

@9cupsoftea said:

@cstrang said:

@9cupsoftea said:

@cstrang said:

If you don't buy used games, why the fuck do you care?

Principle. Not being entirely self-absorbed. Giving a damn about the bigger picture of where the industry is going. Many reasons.

Ppffffftttt. What a wonderfully self-righteous response. It's the newest, less severe version of CD keys. Get over it. Personally, I'm glad. At least this way developers of my favorite games will hopefully still get cash from used sales of their game.

Better self-righteous than selfish. CD keys are hardly the pinnacle of the industry, you could argue that's one of the reasons PC gaming suffered. What about all the consoles not online? And the whole 'developers get their money this way' argument is ridiculous. Warner Bros get their money, MS will take their cut, Rocksteady will still get paid just the same and if Batman 3 tanks then they'll get bullied and dismantled like every other developer is liable to be.

I can't accept the "well, half of all consoles are offline" argument. In a world where the vast majority of the gaming community has access to internet and a wireless router/ethernet cable cost as much as a song, the biggest reason all of those consoles are offline is because they are modded machines used to play pirated games. It's a vicious cycle: Publishers do shit like this because of piracy, piracy and belly-aching of the self-entitled increase because publishers do shit like this.

@cstrang: While I imagine some portion of consoles are offline because they are modded - I don't think it's nearly as many as you think.

Besides, making people have to hook up their consoles doesn't stop piracy - pirates will always find other ways to access the content and play it (they aren't having any trouble getting access and playing a multitude of PC or console games as of right now - internet connections or not) - the only group this kind of "solution" inconveniences is regular gamers.

@downtime58: I think can't help but think that's an over simplification of the "average gamer"-to-"super pirate" paradigm.

I can't accept the "well, half of all consoles are offline" argument. In a world where the vast majority of the gaming community has access to internet and a wireless router/ethernet cable cost as much as a song, the biggest reason all of those consoles are offline is because they are modded machines used to play pirated games. It's a vicious cycle: Publishers do shit like this because of piracy, piracy and belly-aching of the self-entitled increase because publishers do shit like this.