Warner Bros. has confirmed to us that its Batman: Arkham Knight Collector’s Edition has been cancelled.
An email sent by EB Games, who has the Australian exclusive on this edition, was sent around this morning.
“[D]ue to unforeseen circumstances that greatly compromised the quality of the Batmobile Edition, this edition has now been cancelled globally by Warner and as a result we are unable to fulfil your order for this product.”
EB Games is offering customers a full refund on any pre-order they may have made. But if they want to transfer their pre-order across to the regular special edition, it is offering a discount from the RRP of $109.95 to $87.
“As massive Bat-fans ourselves,” the email read, “we’re very disappointed by this outcome. However, we’d never want to deliver a product to you that isn’t of the highest quality possible.”
A statement released by Warner used very similar language.
We regret to inform you that we are not able to release the Batmobile Collector’s Edition of Batman: Arkham Knight due to unforeseen circumstances that greatly compromised the quality of this extremely limited run of product. We are deeply apologetic for this unfortunate outcome. If you did pre-order the Batmobile Collector’s Edition, please go to the retail location where you pre-ordered the product and you will receive a full refund of your deposit or it can be rolled over to another Batman: Arkham Knight edition or another product of your choice. We will be providing everyone who purchases Batman: Arkham Knight with the New 52 skin pack, including Batman, Robin and Nightwing, free of charge.
An internal email sent to EB employees confirmed precisely what costumers would be offered in light of the cancellation.
[A]ll customers who preordered the Batmobile Edition will be affected and should be offered one of the following options:
1) Transfer their preorder to the Special Edition for only $87
2) Transfer their preorder to the Standard Edition
3) A full refund
It’s very strange for a collector’s edition to be cancelled at such late notice, but we have seen certain collector’s editions release with substandard products in the box. If you’re affected by this cancellation EB Games and have any questions, EB is recommending you call their customer service line at 13 39 30.
Comments
78 responses to “Batman: Arkham Knight Batmobile Edition Cancelled One Week Before Release”
Remember when games had one edition, which included all of the game content produced?
Pepperidge farm remembers.
Pepperidge Farm remembers, but Pepperidge Farm ain’t just gonna keep it to Pepperidge Farm’s self free of charge. Maybe you go out and buy yourself some of these distinctive Milano cookies, maybe this whole thing disappears.
Remember when family guy was good?
*sigh* Boy was that a long time ago…
A friend of mine had the Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 collector’s edition boxed set back in 1999, so they’ve been around for at least 16 years. My first was the Diablo 2 CE in 2000, they sent it to me for being in the testing program for the game. It had the soundtrack and a D&D RPG adaptation in it, was good fun.
My first was the Metal Gear Solid 2 collectors edition. Came with a dog tag and soundtrack I believe.
Yup, option number 3 and as little money as possible going to WB in the future. Considering the bs that comes with day 1 pre-order only ‘DLC’ with Arkham games, it might be a blessing to wait for when the GOTY edition is available in a sale, say for $10 on Steam. I can wait
You’re not kidding it’s late notice. Considering there’s 3 business days until release these should have been received and checked over a week or two ago at least. I’d say the lowest bidder to make them couldn’t fill the order in time. Question, why not provide a copy of the game to those who pre-ordered it and then go elsewhere to complete the statues?
Because that takes time. Time they don’t have as they have to finish making the game and release the ending as DLC later.
It boggles my mind how they could have fucked up this bad. I 100% get there’s likely serious quality issues with the model itself, which is fair enough to cancel the edition but *surely* this must’ve been known say, a week ago? two weeks ago? Like you said, 3 business days is absolutely disgusting. I know two people who will be heartbroken over this (ones a bigger batman fan than me, that’s pretty massive). So disappointed, but Jim Sterlings right, WB has been on a major downhill slide for a long time.
It might have been something like the manufacturer screwing them up and then saying that they’d definitely 100% have the perfect version ready just in time if they had a few more days and some moron believed them rather than pulled the plug when it screwed up the first time
I’m considering that maybe they discovered something toxic or hazardous in the materials or paint on it, and the company that made it didn’t disclose it.
They can’t release it to the general populace that item which is now contaminated. so they had to drop it. The statues probably shipped from China so maybe corners where cut and Australian Safety Standard where not met.
I believe it was a worldwide cancellation of this version. But having something toxic or deadly could explain why things were pulled so late in the game.
3 business days?
That’s a major fail in and of itself… The only way I can think of this call being made this late in the schedule would be due to excessive issues on stock that was already being received by retailers.
Youd think stores would have the CE in stock by then
Most probably won’t get their stock in until Monday I think (fairly sure that’s how it usually works). I’d imagine WB would surely have had to start getting stuff packaged up to send to distributers by now though, so I can’t understand how this possibly wasn’t discovered earlier…
3 business days before they go out to customers seems a really short time to make sure everythings ready :S
I agree, it’s pretty shitty cancelling it this close to release, but at least it’s better than handing out an inferior quality Batmobile and have people get even more pissed off.
Yep completely agree. I’ll be cancelling my order altogether and will grab the game as cheap as possible later.
A massive FU to the fans that preordered the most expensive edition and now they can’t deliver we not only miss out on the statue, but also the art book & comic just because we went for the most expensive edition instead of the other collectors edition. Could’ve at least still gave us the comic and art book along with the steel case and skins.
Is this the new pre-order scam from publishers? Create a ‘mouth-watering’ pre-order edition and once you have people hooked in, cancel it because you know they will still buy the game?
Sucks for the people who ordered it. Also sucks for the retailer who has to bare the brunt of the uneducated comments from the public
Doesn’t seem like that would be a good strategy, they would still have made more money off the $200-ish Batmobile edition (had it not failed)
And nothing of value was lost.
And this is why I stopped drooling over collectors editions after the disappointment that was the Dead Space 2 collectors edition…
Hey, that was cool >:
It was so small and crappy it got taken out of the box once and never looked at again. Not even sure I still have it, I think I flogged it with a heap of other 360 games that I also owned on PC (thank you sales!)
The worst one I ever got was Arkham Asylum funnily enough. The “battle damage” on the batarang was horrendous, like someone simply ran a box cutter over it a few times.
Damn man it was that bad??? I never saw it myself but did hear issues.
To the point where I took it back to the store thinking someone had vandalised it until they pulled out another with the same problem. Checked the internet and yeah, same problem with all of them. Looking at it they literally paid someone with a box cutter and a file to damage all the perfectly serviceable looking batarang as it was intentionally done and not a defect explained away. No idea what they were thinking.
Wait… that shit was intentional?
I just figured mine was cheap plastic.
lol went through the same thing, but i called EB and asked about it. The dude said that they’d had a heap of complaints already but that was just how it was meant to be.
Yeah, it was a joke. I’ve still got it boxed away somewhere, and is the exact reason why I’ll never get another CE from them again lol
http://www.cupcakegrenade.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/batarang-comp.jpg
I’ve heard horror stories about the statue in the Arkham Origins Collector’s Edition too.
Hmmmm, maybe it’s time to change your manufacturer WB.
My statue from Arkham Origins was fine, I was actually surprised at how good it was considering it wasn’t an expensive collectors edition
Now the original baterang collector’s was widely criticised for its poor quality so I guess WB wanted to avoid that happening again.
HOWEVER making the call a week before release? Well now you’ve made an all new reason for your customers to get angry WB! Good job 😉
I am beyond upset. I pre-ordered this the moment it was made available about a year ago. To pull this from me 6 days before release is BULLSH!T. I can’t even order any other limited edition because it’s too late.
I’m in the exact same situation as you, I had ordered the Batmobile edition as soon as it was announced (which was the only way to secure one as they stopped offering pre-orders on it in no time flat).
Personally, and I know some people will say this comes across as “gamers feeling over entitled”, I feel like the compensation being offered simply isn’t good enough. It’s one thing for them to cancel it due to poor quality reasons (which is a good thing and shows at least some level of integrity), but to do it SIX DAYS before release is amazingly shitty, surely this should have (and probably was) picked up weeks ago? For those of us that were big enough fans, be it of Batman or the Arkham series in general, to rush out and secure the Batmobile edition it’s not even possible to get the lesser special edition that had a Batman statue instead of the Batmobile as they’re all sold out.
On a side note, props to Mark for writing up this story the way he has, as opposed to US Kotaku that has written it up in a condescending manner that basically thumbs their nose at those affected while implying that their disappointment is their own fault for preordering something they wanted.
Thats what shits me the most. The other Limited edition i would get but it sold out long ago.
Batmobile lost its wheel and the Joker got away HEY
Hope WB isn’t directly responsible for making the actual Batmobile for Batman vs Superman if they can’t get a simple model right
That song can have consequences.
Today is my birthday. My email from EB has, quite possibly, made it one of the shittiest. I’m open to ‘pain soothing’ suggestions – ranging from beer to kicking puppies.
Kick a drunk puppy.
Have a puppy kick a drunk.
But … that would put myself at risk of being kicked …
[edit: typo]
Happy birthday 🙂 drunk a puppy and have a kick. My birthday’s next Saturday so there goes my present to myself as well 🙁
I’m not sure if it’s still on but you could go watch Age of Ultron 😛
Happy Birthday too.
I’ve already seen it! The best thing on at the cinema at the moment is Aloha – and, frankly, I really would rather a puppy kick me 😛
my guess is they knew before this, but waited till they sold out of their other collectors editon (the one with the statue) before announcing it.
Won’t be buying the game at launch now, only had it on preorder for the batmobile.
Yep. I’m gonna hold out for GOTY now. It’s not like there’s a gaming drought at the moment.
My theory is that WB waited for E3 to roll around so they could release this without to much attention. WB should give all the people who pre-ordered the Batmobile edition the Season Pass for free IMO.
Geez, imagine if Bethesda did this to the Pip-Boy edition, there would be riots.
They might yet! We’re only getting the Batmobile news six days before launch – F4 might do the same (who knows what contractors they use – it all just gets awarded to the lowest bidder out of China anyway).
Remember how bad the quality on the first batman games CE was, the Batarang was terrible, I am guessing it is the same here, but this time QA got their fingers out.
Well that was the first (and now last) collectors editions I ever preordered. See you in the bargain bin or steam sale next year batman!
While I will eventually buy this, the way Warner is going about their business seems to conflict with this statement:
“As massive Bat-fans ourselves […] we’re very disappointed by this outcome. However, we’d never want to deliver a product to you that isn’t of the highest quality possible.”
However, in regards to Arkham Origins it was stated:
“I mean we refused to fix that game, that was something we actually announced in an official statement and everything. And how did people punish us? They kept giving us money!”
http://www.destructoid.com/warner-bros-how-do-we-keep-getting-away-with-this-shit–291285.phtml
Move over EA, there’s a new kid on the block.
So they’re making it a normal price then? Even then, JB has it for $79…
Its the collectors edition for $87 right?
special edition.
I feel bad for the EB staff who are going to cop an absolute shitfull today when it’s something outside their control.
Fuuuuuuuuuuuully.
Oh man, that suuuuucks.
Remember when City launched and the CE were delayed? When that happened I didn’t find out until release day and JB were so apologetic I got a free game out of it.
Surely you’d offer the Season Pass instead of just skins. Especially New 52 ones.
Yep just another reason to piss ppl off
Booked the week off work for it.
Sms to check email.
See this yet another slap in the face.
No offer of the normal collectors etd
Just a crappy std etd with dl extras
All i can say about WB and EB is ass holes
There are other words but i wont say them
Why anyone preorders anything from WB is beyond me. I wouldn’t even settle for the standard edition, I’d be picking it up when the GOTY edition comes out a year down the path.
Because people want the CE figure/statues
I have the Injustice statue, the one where Batman fights Wonder Woman. It’s quite a good statue in my opinion. :-S
They should have automatically downgraded everyone to the statue edition. this is total BS.
Annoying. But I’d already paid the full amount so I just went in dropped down to the special edition they’re offering then used the rest as credit on pre-order for mass effect, uncharted and FFIV remake then enough disney infinity figurines to make my six year olds head explode when she come home from school today. I still get the DLC and if I ever feel that desperate for a batmobile I’ll go get a model of the tumbler from the movie or maybe a Lego one. Like I said, annoying, but I think I’ve come out ahead of where I would have been.
This is the biggest load of crap I’d ever seen. I had the batmobile collectors edition preordered months ago. Finished paying it off today just to get a phone call 30 minutes later saying it was canceled.
Since they waited till the last minute to cancel it I can’t even transfer my money to the limited edition version. They screwed me big time.
I even called WB customers service and they said they could do nothing for me outside of giving me the apology consolation prize which is just getting the skins that came with the collectors edition in the first place. They screwed me and most likely others big time. Now I have to wait till someone sells it for 150% mark up on eBay to even just get the limited edition version.
Thanks WB for the screwing of a life time.
http://i.imgur.com/7iPnr.gif
i agree this is pretty pathetic especially if they are saying because of lack of quality, because when origins came out the joker statue was a fucking disgrace
This makes me much sadness…
Okay, so the fans who went in and pre-ordered practically wasted their time because in the end all they are going to get is the Special Edition with some DLC?
Missing out on Statue & Comic-Book.
My main gripe is how they are trying to resolve things, from Batmobile Edition down to Special Edition (with DLC) – yeah okay, not only did I miss out but now you are giving me something of lesser value and hope I will be okay?
I wonder what was wrong with it. I wonder if they will tell us. Probably not.
Some luck bugger has the game already.
I think in certain parts of the U.S. they have broken the street date.
Here is the link that includes pics.
http://gearnuke.com/batman-arkham-knight-broken-street-date
anen brotha. I couldn’t of said it better myself. Back then you actually had the full game and to get extras had to beat the game 10 different ways.
I ORDERED THE BATMOBILE EDITION OVER A YEAR A GO, AND “NOW” THEY CANCELLED IT…… BULL SHIT, YOU THINK THEY WOOD HAVE BEEN KEEPING A EYE ON THINGS… NO NO “F-CK YOU” WB F-CK YOU AND F-BATMAN TOO.
I would realy like somone from Kotaku AU (or any gaming journalist) to dig further into this story and ask Warner Bros/WB Games Australia why this issue wasn’t picked up sooner to allow people (myself included) the chance to order the Limited Edition instead.
This is literally the definition of a First World Problem but I still take issue with WB’s poor customer service, lack of further clarification and compensation.
Arkham Asylum collectors edition: Poor quality batarang
Arkham Knight collectors edition: Delayed, but we got a free copy of the standard edition to play till it came in (And funnily enough that free copy had a character skin code that was exclusive to GAME when you pre-ordered from them)
Arkham Origins collectors edition: Was an EB exclusive, and I think they over ordered? So for some people it was delayed and we got a couple of dlc skins.
Warner do not care, and that’s especially the case when you add Australia and EB (As far as I know none of these issues happened in any other territory)
I commend Warner Bros for opting to cancel the Batmobile release instead of putting a substandard product in the box. I think that would have been worse than this cancellation. But i think they handled it wrong and unfairly. I for one was looking forward to more than the Batmobile in the box. I was really looking forward to getting my hands on the #0 comic book. They should have made arrangements for those who did Pre-Order the Batmobile edition to get the extras that would have been included. Maybe re-named it to the Apology Edition. All those who Pre-Ordered the Batmobile edition were among the first ones to pre-order any Edition of the game and chose to fork out the money for it. Yes because we are that committed to it. I put my pre-order in when the Batmobile edition was just a rumor. I got the Comic books when they came out. Now We are all left with nothing but the “special edition” that has nothing but some extra skins and in-game content because even the Collectors Edition is sold out. So from having the best we went down to having almost nothing. And all we got for it was a sorry and $23 off the Special Edition. Kind of seems more like a “Tough cookies, suck it up” to me. I think it’s wrong and it sucks to know that we are so undervalued that nothing was done to make it up to us.