'Arkham Asylum' bug exposes pirates

Developer Rocksteady Studios has revealed a deliberate glich in the PC version of Batman: Arkham Asylum, planted to expose software pirates.

The bug came to light on September 4, when a user posted a message on the Eidos forums requesting help with the game.

"I've got a problem when it's time to use Batman's glide in the game. When I hold, like it's said to jump from one platform to another, Batman tries to open his wings again and again instead of gliding. So he [falls] down [into] poisoning gas. If somebody could [tell] me, what should I do there," they wrote.

When Eidos responded to the post, it was revealed that the problem was the result of a hook in the game's copy protection.

"The problem you have encountered is a hook in the copy protection, to catch out people who try and download cracked versions of the game for free. It's not a bug in the game's code, it's a bug in your moral code," the publisher replied.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was released for Xbox 360 and PS3 on August 28, with a PC version due on September 18.