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Another one joins the exclusive family(?) - Shenmue 3 announced as an Epic Games Store exclusive after lengthy Kickstarter campaign

D13H4RD

It seems that Tim Sweeney is really gunning for it when he mentioned earlier this year that the company would not turn down requests for exclusivity even if relevant titles are previously advertised to be or sold on a competing platform. And publisher Deep Silver (whom you may recognize from the Metro Exodus exclusivity kerfuffle) seems all too wiling to let some teeth ghash in exchange for revenue guarantees and potential revenue compensation. 

 

Shenmue 3, a long-awaited sequel to the last 2 Shenmue games (which were regarded as commercial failures despite their critical acclaim due to the massive cost of development which couldn't realistically be covered by sales) was recently announced as part of a lineup of new exclusives that would come to the Epic Games Store, whilst some others, like Cyberpunk 2077 would come to the Epic Store albeit not as an exclusive. 

 

This followed a Kickstarter campaign where the game raised over $6 million on Kickstarter, totalling out to around $7.1m when counting other platforms, making it highly successful. However, players who picked the option to have a Steam key on PC weren't pleased with the sudden news. 

Quote

Unfortunately, the release of this trailer has been tainted for a lot of folks by the announcement that the PC version of Shenmue 3 will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store. Deep Silver and Suzuki’s studio, Ys Net, announced the exclusivity deal in a Kickstarter update today, saying that Epic was the “the best distribution platform option” when they were “looking for the most enjoyable experience on PC.”

 

We’d have you guess what kind of reaction that announcement is getting, but you don’t need to. The comments section on that Kickstarter update is filled with people demanding a refund, with many pointing out that they specifically selected the once-promised Steam version when they backed the game. New comments are flooding in at a decent clip too, so to say backers are upset is definitely an understatement.

While the developers have stated that part of the reason for the exclusivity have to do with development along with the use of the Unreal Engine (keep in mind that the fee to use the Unreal Engine commercially is waived when a game is sold on EGS), that doesn't seem to be a content enough reason with many backers, who (understandably) requested for a refund. Unfortunately, it seems that such requests are turned down by Deep Silver and Ys Team. 

Quote

Hello [Backer],

Thank you very much for contacting us.

The launch was previously planned for distribution on Steam, however it was decided together with Deep silver after much discussion that the Epic Games Store would be the best distribution platform option.

Shenmue III will be distributed through the Epic Games Store and will require the Epic Games Store Client to activate.

We apologize for the sudden change in platform, however, refunds will not be granted for this change.

We thank you for your support and look forward to delivering the Shenmue experience fans everywhere have been waiting so long for.

Best Regards,
The Shenmue III Team

The game is currently slated to arrive on PS4 and PC (on the EGS as of now) on November 19th. An Xbox One version was rumored but never materialized. 

 

Sources:

DualShockers

SlashGear

 

Personal thoughts 

Spoiler

I've made my stance on the EGS and their strategy to gain relevance quite clear at this point, so I won't go further into those. I also have made it quite clear on the potential benefits and fallbacks of going in on Epic Exclusivity, so that won't be discussed much.

 

However, this does go back to the time where Phoenix Point was suddenly announced as an Epic Games Store exclusive for 12 months after a period where backers were given the option of a Steam or GoG key. The response where mostly identical to the one shared by backers of Shenmue 3, but there is one critical difference. 

 

The developers of Phoenix Point, especially Julian Gollop, have promised that as soon as the exclusivity is over, backers will be given a key of their choosing (Steam or GoG) and that they were all too willing to accept refund requests if backers wish to do so. However, with Shenmue, it seems to be the opposite. While there no concrete word yet on whether backers may still get a Steam key after the exclusivity deal expires (probably unlikely), the refusal to refund is not going to go down well at all and will generate much more bad PR. 

 

It seems that Deep Silver, the team behind Shenmue 3 and Epic are going with the strategy of "any PR is good PR, regardless of how negative it might be". While DS may someday bow down to the negativity, it's probably safe to say that this will probably be the norm going forward. 

 

On a side note, more props to CDPR for releasing CBP2077 on the EGS without exclusivity, which adds another storefront of choice for players. While it's all but certain that Steam copies will make up a vast majority of orders, followed by GoG, giving Epic users (and loyalists) the option to get it on their storefront of choice is very noteworthy. 

 

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3 minutes ago, D13H4RD said:

While the developers have stated that part of the reason for the exclusivity have to do with development along with the use of the Unreal Engine (keep in mind that the fee to use the Unreal Engine commercially is waived when a game is sold on EGS), that doesn't seem to be a content enough reason with many backers, who (understandably) requested for a refund. Unfortunately, it seems that such requests are turned down by Deep Silver and Ys Team. 

ok, so they're now committing fraud or false advertising?

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1 minute ago, Herman Mcpootis said:

ok, so they're now committing fraud or false advertising?

According to some, it seems to violate Kickstarter's Terms of Service, but we'll see how this pans out. 

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I smell class action.....

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2 minutes ago, D13H4RD said:

According to some, it seems to violate Kickstarter's Terms of Service, but we'll see how this pans out. 

forget about the TOS, this feels like they're at least breaking a few laws somewhere. not sure how there isn't a civil/criminal investigation into these by now...

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1 minute ago, D13H4RD said:

According to some, it seems to violate Kickstarter's Terms of Service, but we'll see how this pans out. 

It is against EU laws for false advertising or fraud, both can pass. Especially by not giving refunds.

 

Fun fact, the publisher is Deep Silver who is behind Metro: Exodus so there is that.

 

The worst thing is that the game was backed before there EGS existed so this is a huge punch in the face. One look at their kickstarter page paints a picture.

The ability to google properly is a skill of its own. 

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3 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Why won't this exclusivity cancer just die already ffs...

Because publishers seems attracted to Epic's revenue guarantees and such. 

 

Makes sense for small indies but it's much cloudier when you throw in large companies with massive amounts of cash. 

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2 minutes ago, D13H4RD said:

Because publishers seems attracted to Epic's revenue guarantees and such. 

 

Makes sense for small indies but it's much cloudier when you throw in large companies with massive amounts of cash. 

A revenue of game not being sold because of being a turd exclusive is ZERO. But I guess math isn't their strongest point...

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25 minutes ago, D13H4RD said:

According to some, it seems to violate Kickstarter's Terms of Service, but we'll see how this pans out. 

I think they have E3 presentation tomorrow so that's gonna be a treat.

The ability to google properly is a skill of its own. 

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39 minutes ago, D13H4RD said:

saying that Epic was the “the best distribution platform option”

for revenue only maybe. Surely developers aren't blind to the massive controversy surrounding the EGS....or they just don't care...

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“Long talk” I think means Tim paid them a lot of money to offset their losses.

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10 minutes ago, Arika S said:

for revenue only maybe. Surely developers aren't blind to the massive controversy surrounding the EGS....or they just don't care...

Probably the latter. Deep Silver would have known the amount of backlash this would have, given that they too published Metro: Exodus.

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38 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

Fun fact, the publisher is Deep Silver who is behind Metro: Exodus so there is that.

And they were doing so well...

 

No monies from me i guess.

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Aaaah

Classic dine and dash.

 

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1 hour ago, Noctus said:

And they were doing so well...

 

No monies from me i guess.

So good Metro is already on Xbox Game Pass.

The ability to google properly is a skill of its own. 

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26 minutes ago, Bouzoo said:

So good Metro is already on Xbox Game Pass.

 

That may be down to microsoft, the contract probably states somthing along the lines of right to publish on the xbox platform and the game pass is considered xbox platform even though it runs on a PC.

 

Also yeah if this doesn't result in someone somwhere taking legal action i would be stunned. Expect a sudden backpedal on the no refunds policy in the next few days IMO.

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2 hours ago, Master Disaster said:

I smell class action.....

It wouldn't go anywhere, crowdfunding something doesn't give you any say in the company's decisions. You're giving them money out of trust, you aren't buying shares. This is part of the risk.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

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2 hours ago, RejZoR said:

A revenue of game not being sold because of being a turd exclusive is ZERO. But I guess math isn't their strongest point...

But if the lost sales are lower than the money they get from Epic that's a net gain. Maybe math is their strong suit.

 

Also this is no different than just releasing on Steam and only on Steam unless you can prove sales are significantly impacted.

Don't ask to ask, just ask... please 🤨

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You were required to have a Steam account to get the PC Version when you backed it. So not only are we verging well into the territory of fraud, but they also just killed their entire PC distribution database. 

 

If they were smarter, they could have at least done what Metro did was send out Steam codes to those that preordered before the deal was signed. This isn't really hard to make work if you're going to do something with a negative PR hit.

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1 hour ago, Sauron said:

It wouldn't go anywhere, crowdfunding something doesn't give you any say in the company's decisions. You're giving them money out of trust, you aren't buying shares. This is part of the risk.

Not really, according to the Kickstarter update it's not coming to steam (nothing about ever going there is mentioned in the epic exclusive post). So the following quote plus EU refund laws will eat them up if they do nothing.

Quote

Kickstarter's terms make it clear that project creators must "refund any backer whose reward they do not or cannot fulfill."

 

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3 minutes ago, Noctus said:

Not really, according to the Kickstarter update it's not coming to steam (nothing about ever going there is mentioned in the epic exclusive post). So the following quote plus EU refund laws will eat them up if they do nothing.

 

Those are just Kickstarter's terms. At worst they'll be banned from Kickstarter.

 

As for EU laws, nothing was sold so I don't think refund laws apply. There are plenty of precedents where crowdfunded projects didn't deliver and got away with it; it's even harder to argue against them when the project will deliver, just on a different free store.

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So they changed from steam to the epic store, the issue?

 

not like they’re running away with the money and not delivering. Never understood why all the bitching 

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