Mac, Linux Versions Of 'Batman: Arkham Knight' Canceled

We thought that the woes for Batman: Arkham Knight ended last November, when the company once again offered refunds for the PC version. Now, another blow strikes the development team, as the game’s Mac and Linux versions are canceled.

The announcement was posted on the game’s Steam forums. Short and straight to the point, it read: “We are very sorry to confirm that Batman: Arkham Knight will no longer be coming to Mac and Linux. If you have pre-ordered Batman: Arkham Knight for Mac or Linux, please apply for a refund via Steam.”

This latest news seems to be the final chapter in the Arkham Knight fiasco. After a messy release in June, developers added features in small, “interim patches” to improve performance on the PC. When the game came out again in October, our own Derek Forrest ran a second wave of tests. However, he discovered that a few issues lingered from day one, and performance was worse than before, especially on higher resolutions.

In addition to more patches, WB Games issued a statement that told users it would try to fix certain problems, but there are a few issues that couldn’t be resolved. In other words, the developers and publisher admitted defeat in their pursuit of polishing the game on PC. If it can’t fix the PC version, it makes sense to abandon the Mac and Linux platforms altogether.

Batman: Arkham Knight signaled the end of the Batman: Arkham series, but it’s hard to focus on the gameplay when multiple performance issues stifled the experience. Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Rocksteady Studios (hopefully) learned their lesson, so that the next project won’t be as catastrophic in its execution.

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  • hannibal
    And Linux gaming will be maintream 3,2,1 aborted...
    Reply
  • hannibal
    Bad news indeed...
    We need more competition in OS market!
    Reply
  • captaincharisma
    well OSX is basically Linux anyway so no surprise that was cancelled too
    Reply
  • 2Be_or_Not2Be
    After all the problems the PC version had, did anyone really think they were actually going to release Mac/Linux versions??
    Reply
  • firefoxx04
    OSX is not "basically linux". It is "basically" UNIX.

    Game developers are just lazy, plain and simple. They have a hard time making games for Windows, let alone good high quality games. This does not surprise me at all, Linux is just too much of a big boy OS for them to handle
    Reply
  • targetdrone
    OSX is not "basically linux". It is "basically" UNIX.

    Game developers are just lazy, plain and simple. They have a hard time making games for Windows, let alone good high quality games. This does not surprise me at all, Linux is just too much of a big boy OS for them to handle

    BigBoy OS? Publishers are out to make money. You don't make money developing for something that has less than 2% of the market share and of that 2% even less would be interested in buying the product.

    Reply
  • shrapnel_indie
    17446509 said:
    OSX is not "basically linux". It is "basically" UNIX.

    Game developers are just lazy, plain and simple. They have a hard time making games for Windows, let alone good high quality games. This does not surprise me at all, Linux is just too much of a big boy OS for them to handle

    BigBoy OS? Publishers are out to make money. You don't make money developing for something that has less than 2% of the market share and of that 2% even less would be interested in buying the product.

    Yeah, publishers are out to make money. Even to the point that they really hate "It's ready when its ready" that Id used to proclaim. Now it has to be done by a certain date. period. If not, oh well... ship it anyway and start patching it. Arkham's damage because of being pushed out the door was so bad that they couldn't even blame the hemorrhaging sales on piracy. Not in the face of so many bad reviews and complaints. (I'm sure they'll try if they believe they can work it to their advantage though.)

    EDIT:
    As to "Big Boy OS," Linux hasn't been able to grab a foothold in the face of the juggernaut OS with monopolistic practices. So, while Linux is a very capable system (and yes, Windows has it plus of hiding complexity... at the cost of flexibility) it remains fairly unknown to the average joe. We who visit here are not the average joe though.
    Reply
  • bloodroses75
    Considering the Windows one doesn't even feel finished, it does not surprise me at all that they cancelled the Linux and OSX ports. That title has been a disaster on all computer fronts. Same with Warner Bros other disaster; Mortal Kombat X.
    Reply
  • zanny
    OSX is not "basically linux". It is "basically" UNIX.

    Game developers are just lazy, plain and simple. They have a hard time making games for Windows, let alone good high quality games. This does not surprise me at all, Linux is just too much of a big boy OS for them to handle

    BigBoy OS? Publishers are out to make money. You don't make money developing for something that has less than 2% of the market share and of that 2% even less would be interested in buying the product.

    Nobody uses Linux because it has no proprietary software. It has no proprietary software because nobody uses Linux.
    Reply
  • firefoxx04
    I wasnt complaining about them dropping linux, I was simply not surprised. Anyone who thinks big games will come out for linux is smoking something strong. If you read my post, I say that they cannot even get it right on Windows half the time (more than half the time honestly).

    Gamers have started to accept that they will be buying broken games during launch. You people pay $60 for a broken game. So much for the PC master race when your $1500 rig has trouble playing the newest games while console players have no trouble. I love PC gaming, but i would rather play a game that works on ps4 than a broken game on my $1500 rig. The pc gaming community needs to stand up for itself. We have no problem paying $1000 for an 8 core i7, $600+ a pop for a graphics card but ignore the fact that when games come out they are BROKEN.

    Wake up people. The industry does not care about you, they think you are a fool.
    Reply