Catwoman Content In Batman: Arkham City Unlocked With Online Pass

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When Electronic Arts first started implementing project ten dollar in their games a few years back, we pretty much knew that we were entering a new era of gaming. Sure, we hoped that this whole “pay extra if you bought it used,” deal would just go away, but we knew that tons of publishers were going to jump on this online pass bandwagon.

Now here we are in 2011 and a lot of major publishers have an online pass of their own, locking multiplayer portions of their games to those who buy it used until those people shell out an extra $10. It’s pretty clear that online pass isn’t going anywhere soon, and will likely be around for as long as used game sales are around.

But now we seem to be entering a new era – one where publishers lock single player content and demand an extra $10. Warner Bros. announced today that the Catwoman content in Batman: Arkham City will be locked until a code that comes with new copies of a game is redeemed. If you didn’t buy it new and don’t feel like paying an extra $10, you don’t get access to the content.

Warner Bros. is saying that playing the Catwoman content isn’t necessary in order to complete Batman: Arkham City, and that she’ll still have a major role in the game even if you don’t buy an online pass. This really doesn’t concern me either, since I’m planning on buying Arkham City brand-spanking-new, but I am a little bit startled to see publishers locking single player content until they get their cut from used sales.

Yes, the Catwoman content may just be a bonus in this case, but what if more publishers decide to take a page out of Warner Bros. book and take it one step further, locking single player content that isn’t optional? I wouldn’t put it past them – after all, they already lock multiplayer portions of games, they implement strict DRMs that only allow you to play as long as you’re connected to their servers, and some of them even place stipulations in their TOS that say they can deny you access to digital copies of your games. Remember, those are games you paid good money for, and in order to play them, you have to sign away your right to have it forever.

What do you think? Will we see publishers begin locking single player content that’s vital to the story in the future, or do you think publishers will be… let’s say “altruistic,” enough to only lock bonus content and multiplayer modes? I’d hope that it would be the latter, but this shift to locking single player content – bonus or otherwise – doesn’t instill much faith in this gamer.