Posted August 19, 2019 Quote The developer of horror-filled puzzle game Darq turned down an Epic Games Store exclusivity deal, he revealed this week, and has called on Epic to allow indie games to sell simultaneously on the store and via Steam. Epic contacted Wlad Marhulets, the solo developer behind Unfold Games, three days after he had revealed Darq's Steam release date. "On July 30 I was contacted by the Epic Store, proposing that I enter into an exclusivity agreement with them instead of releasing Darq on Steam," he said in a Medium blog post. "They made it clear that releasing Darq non-exclusively is not an option. I rejected their offer before we had a chance to talk about money." Quote "Turning down the Epic exclusivity offer might have been a foolish decision in the short term, considering the amount of money that might have been involved. When thinking long term, however, this was an easy and obvious decision to make (in my case). "Pulling the game off Steam a few days after Steam release date announcement would forever ruin the credibility of my studio. I would like for my customers to have confidence that my word means something, especially when making announcement as crucial as release date/platform." He wanted to give players as many options as possible, he said: he's also selling the game through GOG, for example. "I wish the Epic Store would allow indie games to be sold there non-exclusively, as they do with larger, still unreleased games (Cyberpunk 2077), so players can enjoy what they want: a choice." Quote Marhulets stressed that "he's not speaking on behalf of other developers", and that for some studios accepting an Epic exclusivity deal might be the best plan long-term. "Every indie studio has a unique story and has to deal with a unique set of obstacles. The reasons are mine and mine only. Rejecting such offer happened to be right for my game, but might not be right for other games/studios, as their goals and long-term plans might differ from mine." Quote Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney commented on the case on Twitter after Mark Kern, team lead for vanilla World of Warcraft, said it was "not right" for Epic to disqualify Darq from the Epic Games Store just because they turned down an exclusivity offer. source: https://www.pcgamer.com/darq-developer-reveals-why-he-turned-down-epic-store-exclusivity/ I think if epic wants a game to be an exclusive on their platform they should ask way beforehand not after the steam release date is already announced. This has happened to multiple other games and some of the devs accepted their offer canceling their steam release after they announced it. This also highlights a point that not many touch upon that an epic exclusive doesn't just prevent the game from releasing on steam but on other platforms like GOG also. And I think its absurd that epic didn't allow DARQ to release on epic at all when they turned down the exclusivity deal and Tim Sweeney's excuse isn't convincing to me since if they want their store to grow and overtake steam they need to expand their library as much as possible and I doubt epic is short on cash for paying for servers. And if they are short on cash then they shouldn't be looking to pay out devs to make their game an exclusive. It seems like a retaliatory move to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 Epic thought process: "somebody rejected our moneybags?!? DOES NOT COMPUTE. EXECUTE ORDER 69!" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 Kudos to the dev for not pulling it from another platform (Steam) Integrity is sorely lacking in the game-dev world as of late NOTE: I no longer frequent this site. If you really need help, PM/DM me and my e.mail will alert me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 Fact for all of ya: the developer spend 10k hours to make this game from scratch. He learned how to develop video games from online via Youtube and other internet sites. He also posted on reddit PCMasterRace for questions and answers. Here is the reddit thread: https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/cpumhg/35_years_ago_i_knew_nothing_about_making_games/?utm_medium=android_app&utm_source=share Anyway, fuck Epic Games Store exclusive shit and fortinite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 4 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said: Kudos to the dev for not pulling it from another platform (Steam) Integrity is sorely lacking in the game-dev world as of late Would have also been horrible business. There would have been a few preorders already, but the first impression nearly anyone would get is "eh, it's only about the money". This is a better PR cycle for him, as a result of the rejection. Though the real "benefit" is to show that making a good, curated platform isn't really what EGS is up to. They just want to be their own monopoly. Also, as we already knew, EGS isn't really spending money on this stuff. They only have to pay anything, beyond normal sales, if it doesn't meet the minimum sell-through. EGS really hasn't been fronting much of any money for all of these exclusives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 2 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said: Would have also been horrible business. There would have been a few preorders already, but the first impression nearly anyone would get is "eh, it's only about the money". This is a better PR cycle for him, as a result of the rejection. Though the real "benefit" is to show that making a good, curated platform isn't really what EGS is up to. They just want to be their own monopoly. Also, as we already knew, EGS isn't really spending money on this stuff. They only have to pay anything, beyond normal sales, if it doesn't meet the minimum sell-through. EGS really hasn't been fronting much of any money for all of these exclusives. Epic Games talk using money. They already killed the studio that develop Borderlands games to make Borderlands 3 exclusive on Epic Games Store. Without Fortnite, Epic Games is nothing compare to Valve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 Respect to the dev for not seeing dosh bags only. I've added Darq to my wishlist and will most likely buy it on GOG (I've heard about it few month ago on Reddit and got interested coz it looks similar to Little Nightmares and I loved that game). GOG is where I buy most of my games these days, because the store treats me like a gamer/fan and not like a thief by default (no DRM policy) and I respect that greatly. I also respect this dev. It might be his PR stunt and he gambled with the drama probably, but if game is good, having greater access across platforms will benefit him in the end. People really don't like Epic store... And on GOG it supports Cloud Saves. I love this feature as I can play on PC and continue on laptop without any fiddling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 2 minutes ago, OlympicAssEater said: Epic Games talk using money. They already killed the studio that develop Borderlands games to make Borderlands 3 exclusive on Epic Games Store. Without Fortnite, Epic Games is nothing compare to Valve. EGS isn't putting any money upfront, in most of these deals. Maybe with Borderlands 3 they have, but, for most of the rest of them, all they're doing is assuring a minimum sales amount. If the game sells well enough, it costs EGS absolutely nothing for the exclusive contract, but they also get their otherwise 12% cut. We don't know when EGS has to even make "good" on the minimum sales amount, so it might be at the end of the exclusive period. That might be what really annoys me the most about the whole situation: a lot of Devs took the EGS deal because they're not confident in the product they made. Thus, there's a good chance they're going to make a lot less money on the game than they would have otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 4 minutes ago, Taf the Ghost said: That might be what really annoys me the most about the whole situation: a lot of Devs took the EGS deal because they're not confident in the product they made. Thus, there's a good chance they're going to make a lot less money on the game than they would have otherwise. Quite the counter-productive end-result for EGS . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 1 minute ago, thorhammerz said: Quite the counter-productive end-result for EGS . The most cunning Devs would use the EGS period as a de facto Early Access and have the polished version for Steam/GOG after the exclusivity period. Though I'm not sure EGS would deal with a Dev quite that competent, lol. EGS definitely works with the Publishers, firstly, which explains a lot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 Regardless which store or from whom it's at, exclusives should simply die off though. | Ryzen 7 7800X3D | AM5 B650 Aorus Elite AX | G.Skill Trident Z5 Neo RGB DDR5 32GB 6000MHz C30 | Sapphire PULSE Radeon RX 7900 XTX | Samsung 990 PRO 1TB with heatsink | Arctic Liquid Freezer II 360 | Seasonic Focus GX-850 | Lian Li Lanccool III | Mousepad: Skypad 3.0 XL / Zowie GTF-X | Mouse: Zowie S1-C | Keyboard: Ducky One 3 TKL (Cherry MX-Speed-Silver) | Beyerdynamic MMX 300 (2nd Gen) | Acer XV272U | OS: Windows 11 | Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 I love Tim Sweeney's absolute BS response to it. The PR nonsense is palpable. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 6 hours ago, valdyrgramr said: I feel like comments like these are your typical bias because you'd rather not install another game installer. Gearbox kinda killed themselves years ago, and games like Duke Nukem Forever didn't really help them much at all. Remember such classics as DNF and Battleborn?! The only thing that was keeping them alive was the Borderlands franchise. Epic didn't force them into this deal, so you need to bitch at Gearbox too. People need to bitch at Sony and Nintendo for having exclusives as well while we are at. Honestly not really the same. Nintendo makes most of their exclusives so it is completely different than buying it exclusives. The same goes for Sony. They have studios they own that create games that entice people to buy their console which more power to them if they make a game good enough to justify buying a separate system for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 I seriously hope CDProject Red know better than to go Epic Exclusive. I like to think they're smart enough to realize that the hype around that game is so great that they could launch with a $50 price tag on Steam and still make ALL OF THE MONEY. Ketchup is better than mustard. GUI is better than Command Line Interface. Dubs are better than subs Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 8 hours ago, valdyrgramr said: I feel like comments like these are your typical bias because you'd rather not install another game installer. Gearbox kinda killed themselves years ago, and games like Duke Nukem Forever didn't really help them much at all. Remember such classics as DNF and Battleborn?! The only thing that was keeping them alive was the Borderlands franchise. Epic didn't force them into this deal, so you need to bitch at Gearbox too. People need to bitch at Sony and Nintendo for having exclusives as well while we are at. Sony and Nintendo generally fund games from their inception/before they are first publicly shown. While I'm sure you could dig up examples of games the existed prior to being announced as exclusive, it definitely doesn't appear to be the norm. Exclusivity in general is definitely not ide for consumers, but if exclusivity is the cost for a game to be made that otherwise wouldn't (e.g. Bayonetta 2), then it's still a net positive for gamers overall. If Epic started a year or two ago approaching studios and said, "hey, we want to promote our new store and we want you to make a game for us, here's a bag of cash to do so," there would be no real controversy around Epic. Sure, there would still be Steam fanboys and usual internet arguments, but the vitriol that tons of people have for the Epic Store wouldn't be able to last as long as it has. Also, with regards to the Borderlands exclusivity, the most offensive thing to me is that anyone cares about a Gearbox game in the current year Or that they would want to support the studio after all of its insanely shady dealings over the years. Spoiler Moment of silence for Homeworld, please. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 How very anti-competition of them. Want to sell on our store? You have to be exclusive. ◒ ◒ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 You know, it's one thing to be a preferred platform for a game but it's completely another when you use PR speak to justify games being exclusive. I've always felt like I understood why Epic paid their way to play the game but it's not like they're using any of the exclusivity deals to make their games store better. It's still way behind Steam in terms of features and Epic could've easily learned from Valve's many fuck-ups, but apparently Fortnite got them high as fuck to where they don't know what's the problem with their platform. Check out my guide on how to scan cover art here! Local asshole and 6th generation console enthusiast. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 19, 2019 10 hours ago, spartaman64 said: -snip- I would like for my customers to have confidence that my word means something, especially when making announcement as crucial as release date/platform. yes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 20, 2019 It's not about steam. On PC we don't want any store asking any developer to sign contracts giving up the rights to sell their games anywhere they choose. After the exclusivity deal fell through I am disappointed that the Epic store outright refused to let them sell their game simultaneously while also being on other platforms. We should be encouraging devs to sell in many places... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 20, 2019 This is not advertisement, but people please support this small kind developer that keep his promise to his customers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 20, 2019 13 hours ago, Radium_Angel said: Kudos to the dev for not pulling it from another platform (Steam) Integrity is sorely lacking in the game-dev world as of late if you think the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ at the end of their project isn't one of the major, massive, motivating factors for people to develop games, then you've been in a strange world the last 25 years. it makes absolute sense to me a developer would go to a store that gives them more money. people should be calling for Valve to give more to developers instead of raging on epic for competing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Posted August 20, 2019 5 minutes ago, Eaglerino said: if you think the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ at the end of their project isn't one of the major, massive, motivating factors for people to develop games, then you've been in a strange world the last 25 years. it makes absolute sense to me a developer would go to a store that gives them more money. people should be calling for Valve to give more to developers instead of raging on epic for competing But this developer is different. He told on his reddit thread that even if the game doesn't sell good, he is still happy with what he had done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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