Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight could be one of this month’s most interesting big releases – or at least that’s what we thought after previewing it – but Warner Bros. Games is facing some pre-launch difficulties.
During the last weekend, two surprising bits about TT Games’ new Lego game have arisen. First, we’ve learned via Reddit some Walmart pre-order codes for Xbox Series X/S have gone live early, with players reportedly playing for a few hours already. Second, the divisive Denuvo DRM has been quietly snuck into the PC version of the game by the publisher (which reminds me of Pearl Abyss pulling the same move with Crimson Desert back in March).
Looking at the players who are already dispensing justice in the streets of Gotham, more people than just one lucky user have reported the same findings: at least yesterday, the Walmart Xbox digital pre-orders were unlocked, allowing players to download and access the full, final game. Many users are reporting an update has been released since then, deactivating the game, but cutting the internet connection saved people with early access from waiting like everybody else. This behaviour was also limited to the Standard edition of the game.
Elsewhere, PC players have at least one reason to worry about its potential performance, as the Denuvo DRM solution has been applied to the game at least on Steam. While findings regarding Denuvo’s impact on performance over the years haven’t been consistent, it’s been confirmed in some cases to negatively affect how a game plays on PC.
Pre-release woes aside, Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight is looking like a really fun time, with the developers apparently aiming to deliver the new Arkham game we haven’t had since 2015 (in a more family-friendly way) and all sorts of deep-cut references and meta jokes making it an even bigger celebration of the franchise than we’d expected at first.
