Blockbuster is dealing with "Batman: Arkham City"'s controversial online pass, which unlocks a portion of the game featuring a playable Catwoman, by pulling included download codes from all rental copies and ferreting them away as potential freebies for customers who buy the title used.
Those planning to rent the game from Blockbuster (full disclosure: like I did) will need a broadband Internet connection and an additional $10 if they want to play as the spry female cat burglar.
The move resembles how GameStop is handling the situation. Revealing an internal company memo, Kotaku reported that customers who buy the game used from the retail giant will receive printed codes on their store receipts for the locked content. A store manager at a GameStop in New Jersey confirmed the deal on Tuesday.
MyCE reached out to Blockbuster for a comment regarding its policy, but received none by press time. Should a representative from the company issue a statement, this post will be updated.
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment's "Arkham City" ploy is more or less an anti-used game initiative, but those who developed it have a different take on the decision.
Sefton Hill, the game's director, told Wired that the Catwoman content is largely inconsequential, going so far as to call her a "guest star." Many gamers believed otherwise, thanks in part to early previews of the title (like Game Informer's in-depth 2010 cover story). News about the fate of Selina Kyle's alter-ego was only revealed last week.
Several companies have adopted similar content gates. Many EA titles, including the upcoming shooter Battlefield 3, contain multiplayer components which can only be played by redeeming a code included in new copies or purchasing a $10 pass online. Sony has also fully embraced the plan, shipping its virgin foray into the model, "Resistance 3," in September. "Uncharted 3: Drake's Deception," the action/adventure blockbuster due out from the company next month, will follow suit.
Proving no good deed goes unpunished, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment shipped an unknown number of the Xbox 360/PS3 title with misprinted (or missing) codes. Ubisoft suffered from a similar bungle last month when it published the online pass-enabled "Driver: San Francisco." The French publisher quickly relented, making the previously locked multi-player content free for all.
Whether WBIE will follow suit is unclear. It's latest message to affected customers was 3 hours ago via Twitter: "We are looking into Catwoman dlc problems so please stay tuned." Yesterday, the company promised "you will get to play as the sexy thief." We'll see.
