News

Arkham City 360 pirated, Catwoman requires code to play
Posted: 13.10.2011 21:07 by JonahFalcon Comments: 10
Gamers who enjoyed watching the trailers and read previews claiming that Catwoman is a playable character in Batman: Arkham City will be in for a surprise: she's only playable with new copies via a pass code. Gamers with a used copy must shell out 800 Microsoft Points ($9.99 USD/£7.99 UK).


This was revealed when pirates (shame on you) discovered that the 360 version was asking them for a code to unlock Catwoman. According to the title screen, "Catwoman is a unique character with her own story, moves, and weapons. Unlock Catwoman by redeeming the 1st purchaser included in the game case or by visiting Xbox Live Marketplace."

The pass code unlocks Catwoman as a playable character in the single player campaign for four story scenes and for the Riddler's Revenge challenge mode.

Without the code, Catwoman still appears in the game, but her playable missions are skipped. Fortunately, playing as Catwoman is not required to finish the game, although Warner Bros. Interactive hasn't mentioned if there are achievements that require her to be unlocked.

Comments

By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Oct 13, 2011
herodotus
Naughty, naughty. However, if a developer makes a character only playable with an unlock code, they must realise that this is a gold-plated invitation for hackers to attend the Unlock Ball.
$10 for a character and a few missions already in the code of the game - c'mon that is just a rip.
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Oct 13, 2011
JonahFalcon
Used. You get it free if you bought it new.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Oct 14, 2011
herodotus
Well that's fair enough. Still, it baits pirates and their parasitic followers to nab it for free. Not much can be done about, but it is acceptable for second-hand gamers to have to purchase 'extras'.
By ViGotH (SI Core) on Oct 14, 2011
ViGotH
This is a very interesting way of giving gamers less of an option of either pirating or buying the original.

I like this method, and I am sure that it will work.... unless of course some extreme cracker comes along and changes everything.
By FoolWolf (SI Elite) on Oct 14, 2011
FoolWolf
So the question is if pirates will crack this - then the ones paying for the game will be doubly punished...
had been better if you could transfer the ownership of the game key to someone else and upon new registration had received a code to unlock the extras - and the charge should be minimal and you should get something for it. Pirates don't pay to play - and they don't have to endure ridiculous DRM's to play their pirated games! You want to make more people pay to play or start paying your games - treat your customers with care - like all other businesses have to!
By JonahFalcon (SI Elite) on Oct 15, 2011
JonahFalcon
This isn't DRM. This is combatting used games and rentals.
By herodotus (SI Herodotus) on Oct 15, 2011
herodotus
I've seen some of the Catwoman missions and whole quite similar to the Bat, they are quite well done. Well worth the asking price.
By djole381 (SI Elite) on Oct 15, 2011
djole381
I'm glad that console version got hit first by pirates. Now there's not going to be another "Piracy is killing PC" excuse...
By Chosen_One (SI Core) on Oct 17, 2011
Chosen_One
A ha ha hah.
By nocutius (SI Elite) on Oct 17, 2011
nocutius
I'm kinda torn on this one. On one hand i understand the publishers want to combat the retailers reselling used games en masse and on the other hand i find it very ridiculous considering this a single player game.

Limiting the ability of the retailers to resell i can support, preventing the original buyer from reselling his game to fund the next purchase i can't.

There should be at least 2-3 codes in there if they have to have them. That way the original buyers that trade their games don't get punished and the retailers cant resell the same copy over and over anymore.