Publishers remove their games from the Epic store at its big sale

Earlier in the day, Epic again took a page from the Steam book and announced a "mega sale" that includes both percentage discounts and an additional $ 10 discount on each game sold at a price of 14, $ 99 or more on Epic Games Store. The sale seems to have been easy, but two major games suddenly disappear from the store.

Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2the upcoming role-playing game was gone first, and nobody knew what to think about it. He was briefly available for a reduced price, but suddenly he was gone. Trying to access the game store's page currently returns a 404 error. An Epic representative said Kotaku this Vampire: The Masquerade The publisher Paradox chose at the last second – or technically – after the last second not to participate in the sale.

"If a developer or publisher chooses not to participate in our sales, we will honor that decision," said the representative of Epic in an email. "Paradox Interactive has chosen not to participate in Epic Mega Sale and the game has been temporarily removed from the sale. If you bought Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 when validating the discount at the time of validation of the order, Epic will honor this price. "

Just after Vampire exploded into a figurative cloud of bats, Epic director of publishing strategy Sergey Galyonkin made a similar comment on the Russian site DTF, which the representative of Epic confirmed to be accurate. A little later, Galyonkin made another comment on the same site, saying that he initially thought that Paradox was aware of how the sale would affect his games, but after a little investigation, I was wrong to deceive me.

Paradox would not explain why the deletion occurred while it occurred, but a representative told me a thread containing Galyonkin's comments. The publisher also provided Kotaku with a statement.

"We are in discussion with Epic regarding the temporary withdrawal of Vampire: the Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 Epic Game Store ", read the statement. "The game will come back soon in the store! All purchases made while the game has been reduced during the Mega Sale epic sale will be honored and no violation of the masquerade will be assessed. "

The other game drawn was the survival simulation of a space station. Oxygen not included, the Epic Games Store page for which also gives visitors a 404 error right now. Developer and publisher Klei Entertainment has not commented on this situation yet. Kotaku contacted Klei for more information, but he has not yet responded.

"If a developer or publisher chooses not to participate in our sales, we will honor that decision. Paradox Interactive has chosen not to participate in Epic Mega Sale and the game has been temporarily removed from sale. "

It should be noted that none of these games is an exclusive Epic Store, which could put them uncomfortable in other stores. After all, the structure of this sale is unusual; The $ 10 additional rebate on games sold for $ 14.99 and up is "offered by Epic", which means Epic will record the jackpot himself. As a result, companies like Paradox and Klei can not match these prices on Steam. In the case of Paradox, it is doubly risky, since Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 is not out yet. Why pre-order it elsewhere if Epic could, theoretically, redeem it before its release? Some people have highlighted the regional price differences which would have also led to excessive discounts for a new game in some territories.

"We apologize for the confusion this has caused and hope that the customers who have gotten agreement will enjoy the game," said Supergiant. says on Twitter. "The corrected selling price is still a 25% discount on the original price."

The developer also mentioned the increase in the base price, which some users considered as an attempt to sell the game at a higher price than would have been 25% discount.

"We increased the list price based on the continuous improvements and additions we've made so far in Early Access," said Supergiant. "We think this price matches the current value of the game. Customers can get the game at a lower price than ever before for weeks. "

This is not at all an unusual practice with early-entry games, but some players have been abused in the wrong way in the light of a comment on Supergiant price increase earlier today in which the developer stated that he would "advertise something like this well in advance" when Hades price increase on Twitter.

To a certain extent, it's understandable that the Epic Games Store does not organize a store sale the first time. After all, it took Valve years to get the correct Steam sales and, even then, Steam continues to drop steadily at the start of the big seasonal transactions. But that's in addition to Epic's uncovered feature set, other misconceptions and its unpopular inclination to find exclusives. Watching a company with all the money in the world stumbling into the process of creating a store does not inspire much confidence in its future prospects, even if the roadmap to coming seems much more acceptable than the disaster road now reserved for us.