Steam vs Epic Games

This is the correct way to announce it. Transparency, honesty, and respect.

Disappointed as I'm also looking forward to Soulstorm, but again it's something I'll be buying on console instead. Those respectfully declining because of the decision are understandable; those attacking OWI need to get a life.

EDIT: This is amazing:
 
Reprise said:
The response to Oddworld's announcement on Facebook has been quite positive.

Such a weird double standard.
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It's not about double standard.
It's about the messaging and what was promised.
Oddworld wasn't crowdfunded. Steam keys weren't promised in survey. Developpers aren't saying "we did this because it's the best launcher and better for you".

Like it or not, the original Shenmue III announcement was bad.
 
I disagree. Messaging isn't important, if you can read between the lines and can understand why the deal might be beneficial for an ambitious, niche, crowdfunded project built on a shoestring budget without any guarantees of success. Crowdfunded games arguably need even more support than those that go through traditional avenues, whether they're indie or not. The crowdfunded aspect is frankly irrelevant and I will never understand why gamers treat crowdfunded games differently, as if the developers should owe the backers the whole world. Some of the top comments were "I understand, it's an indie project and needs the money, guaranteed sales paid up fromt and support Epic will bring them". Why wouldn't Shenmue 3 need that too?

And steam keys were never "promised". Don't even start wth that Resetera-influenced fake news. Steam was mentioned in surveys because that was the distrution planned at the time they went live. It's subject to change and if it was as legally absolute as you claim (as well as being a contractual "order"), there would already be a lawsuit and Fangamer would have stepped in.
 
Messaging is important and it's why you're seeing the difference here. I mean, it's speaking for itself. It's a concrete evidence.

And while steam keys weren't promised during the campaign, they became a legal obligation once they fulfilled fangamer orders. Why do you think they ended up offering refunds or a steam key a year later ? :)
 
高野和泉 said:
I don't think any messaging could mitigate the disastrous PR in shenmue's case as the expectation of steam went unchallenged after many updates/probing and people kinda already huddle around it's Steam page hub anticipating the game.
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Yes it could've. Sure, there'd still be whiny people.
But there's a huge difference between :
"EGS exclusive, it's better for you, no steam key, no refund, thank you"

And
"EGS exclusive, which allows us to get a few additionnal funding to polish the game, steam key a year later for those who wish... And for those who dont refunds"
 
The same reason all companies throw money at an issue. They work out and analyse the situation and work out the benefits and disbenefits. Essentially it's easier to take the hit in order to make the controversy go away.
 
GhostTrick said:
Yes it could've. Sure, there'd still be whiny people.
But there's a huge difference between :
"EGS exclusive, it's better for you, no steam key, no refund, thank you"

And
"EGS exclusive, which allows us to get a few additionnal funding to polish the game, steam key a year later for those who wish... And for those who dont refunds"
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I think even in that case, the whiners will just be magnify even more by press/toubers to fit the negative narrative as any controversy is clicks generator and Shenmue has a track-record of being blown up and exploited by press and journalism regardless if it's a non-issue or not. Remember the "Unique" place-holder box art drama ala Kotaku? There seems to be a beating stick used on this series I've rarely or never seen at all used on other struggling franchises.

Walking on eggshell has been the mantra if we wanted smooth sailing from the start. Alas, it was impossible with the breathing room Shenmue's been given & decided by the mainstream crowd & the hype bandwagoners since 2015.
 
GhostTrick said:
And while steam keys weren't promised during the campaign, they became a legal obligation once they fulfilled fangamer orders.
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Wrong. There was never any legal obligation on their behalf to distribute Steam keys. The plan was to distribute the game through Steam originally but that never came to pass. The only thing they were obligated to do Is provide a PC version, as described in the Kickstarter campaign, which they have.

Why do you think they ended up offering refunds or a steam key a year later ? :)
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As a show of good faith because of the confusion/ frustration caused.
 
Oregon Pacifist said:
Wrong. There was never any legal obligation on their behalf to distribute Steam keys. The plan was to distribute the game through Steam originally but that never came to pass. The only thing they were obligated to do Is provide a PC version, as described in the Kickstarter campaign, which they have.



As a show of good faith because of the confusion/ frustration caused.
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There's no legal obligation through Kickstarter.
There is a legal obligation through fangamer.

There was a legal obligation at the very moment they took payment through fangamer for new orders and transfered older ones as a money voucher on fangamer. There was a legal obligation the very moment they had the item named "Steam digital download" and "Steam physical disc".
 
GhostTrick said:
There's no legal obligation through Kickstarter.
There is a legal obligation through fangamer.

There was a legal obligation at the very moment they took payment through fangamer for new orders and transfered older ones as a money voucher on fangamer. There was a legal obligation the very moment they had the item named "Steam digital download" and "Steam physical disc".
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Oh ok, it sounds like you're referring specifically to the people who either upgraded their tiers or people who pledged money during the slacker backer campaign, where funds were collected from backers with them being told it would specifically be for Steam.

I'm not going to refute that, as I think it's a solid claim.

However, I think that the people whining because they pledged $29 in mid 2015 because they can't get the Steam version on day 1 are man-babies.
 
It's no where near as bad as when the likes of Yooka Laylee and Bloodstained cancelled Wii U, Vita and God knows what other versions. Just change platform (or take the refund if you really have to, although it seems pretty petty unless you simply do not have other hardware) and suck it up.

With Yooka Laylee, I even wanted to change to the Switch version, but they didn't offer a physical equivalent and the port was released 8 freaking months after the proper release, so I just got the PS4 version (and then ended up double dipping and throwing money at the Limited Run Games' physical Switch edition later, which by that point was more than double - if not triple - what other versions were being sold for). I never complained and I understood entirely why those platforms had to be cancelled.
 
Decided to get onto the EGS ahead of the backer trial launch next month, and... I literally haven't even been able to log in to the launcher because of some ill-defined backend connection problem I haven't been able to solve despite following their troubleshooting guide.

Sent a request for a support ticket, but I can't say this is a great first impression. Anybody wanting to play the backer trial better give the storefront a dry run before the big day, just in case.
 
Spaghetti said:
Decided to get onto the EGS ahead of the backer trial launch next month, and... I literally haven't even been able to log in to the launcher because of some ill-defined backend connection problem I haven't been able to solve despite following their troubleshooting guide.

Sent a request for a support ticket, but I can't say this is a great first impression. Anybody wanting to play the backer trial better give the storefront a dry run before the big day, just in case.
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I can thankfully say this issue is now resolved, though the advice given on the website was pretty useless and took submitting a support ticket to figure out.

Panic over, roll on the backer demo.
 
Spaghetti said:
I can thankfully say this issue is now resolved, though the advice given on the website was pretty useless and took submitting a support ticket to figure out.

Panic over, roll on the backer demo.
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What was the issue and resolution spags?
 
ShenSun said:
What was the issue and resolution spags?
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Long story short, just a failure to boot properly. The troubleshooting tool falsely identified it as a problem connecting to one of Epic's domains, so I spent forever chasing my tail with the solution for that provided on the help website.

The real issue was something to do with text scaling. Literally just had to check a box in the shortcut's properties to fix it in the end.

Either way, would recommend anybody planning to use EGS to play the backer trial and Shenmue III itself to test the launcher out for issues ahead of time. Just so there's no mass panic if these issues are widespread.
 
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