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

Want to play those Catwoman levels in Batman: Arkham City? Then you're going to need an online pass code.

As if Warner Bros. hasn't made enough of a sport out of trying to baffle the consumer with its utterly bizarre and incomprehensible pre-order schemes for Batman: Arkham City, we can now add one more bat to the consumer's skull (albeit a far less confusing, far more obnoxious one) courtesy of Batman's publisher.

Lack broadband Internet and hate paying for new copies of games? Good luck if you want to have Catwoman.
Lack broadband Internet and hate paying for new copies of games? Good luck if you want to have Catwoman.

This latest moment of consumer grudge humping comes via today's news that the Catwoman missions contained within the game will be locked behind an online pass. Despite WB's constant hyping of the Catwoman bonus missions, you won't be able to freely access them unless you have a new copy of Arkham City, as well as an Internet-connected console. If you do pick up a copy used, you'll need to pony up $9.99 to gain access to these missions.

While the Catwoman missions aren't required to get through Arkham City's storyline, I can say having played as the character in preview builds that they're actually fun, and most definitely a perk of the game. Gamers without Internet-ready consoles are fewer and further between nowadays, but they still exist, and shockingly enough, some of them might want to play Arkham City--as Catwoman, even. As for the used players? Well, you're probably getting used to this sort of thing these days. I ask you: Where's your Occupy Wall Street movement? Where's your protest march? Where are the jobless college kids acting on your behalf?

Of course, the answer is "playing video games and writing enraged Internet comments at nobody who can actually affect change." Right then. Carry on.

Alex Navarro on Google+