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At a time when it seems that more and more developers are choosing to sign lucrative exclusivity contracts with Epic Games Store (and thus provoking the anger of some gamers), the developer at the origin of the 39: independent horror adventure Darq made the strange decision to transform Epic. down. In an article on his Medium blog, developer Wlad Marhulets, the unique team at Unfold Games, revealed the fundamentals of his decision.
Less than a month before the game's release, Mahulets finally shared a trailer on the release date, indicating that the game would arrive at Steam on August 15th. Mahulets said that an Epic representative was asking him to discuss an exclusive contract three days later.
Mahulets says that Epic made it clear that Darq could not initially be released on multiple platforms when he signed his contract, and that he had refused the offer before the representative would can talk about money.
"I love money, and getting an upfront payment in addition to the guaranteed income sounds great to me," Mahulets said. "Although I'm a developer for the first time, I'm very serious about working in this industry for a very long time. I had just announced [the] Release date of Darq on Steam – remove the game of Steam a few days after [making a] The announced release date would ruin the credibility of my studio forever. I would like my clients to know that my word has a meaning, especially when they make [an] announcement as crucial as [a] release date / platform. Rejecting the Epic exclusivity offer could have been a senseless short-term decision, given the amounts involved. When one thinks of the long term, however, it was an easy and obvious decision to make ( in my case). "
Darq has been listed on Steam since late 2018, according to Mahulets. At the time of the release of the game, it was among the 50 most requested games on Steam, attracting more and more attention. Mahulets cited the beginnings of Amazon, which accepted a loss on some sales in order to increase customer loyalty, which allowed it to abstain from signing with Epic.
"It was important for me to give the players what they wanted: options," wrote Mahulets. "Many people have asked that DARQ [be] made available on GOG. I was happy to work with GOG to bring the game to their platform. I hope that the Epic Store will allow the non-exclusive sale of independent games, as they do with larger and still unpublished games (Cyberpunk 2077), so that players can enjoy what they want: a choice. "
Mahulets writes that the day after his rejection of Epic's offer, the announcement that the Ooblets development team was receiving huge amounts of hate mail and threats for having decided to sign an exclusive deal with Epic. Epic subsequently denounced the toxic members of the video game community and is committed to helping developers who have experienced such problems due to a commercial decision.
Mahulets also quoted a tweet of the founder and CEO of Epic Games, Tim Sweeny as the main reason why he hesitated to sign with Epic. In this tweet of July 9, Sweeny congratulated the GOG on the digital showcase for securing a third of Cyberpunk 2077 pre-orders, as reported by OC3D. Sweeny has explicitly expressed support for a multi-store future for PC gaming.
Mahulets shared a screenshot of a conversation with a representative of Epic, who explained to Mahulets that "Epic" is not yet able to open the games store that [simultaneously ship], Apparently at odds with Sweeny's public comments.
"I wish that there is no double standard and that independent developers have the opportunity to sell their games on several storefronts, so that players can enjoy what they seem wanting the most: a choice, "concluded Mahulets. Epic has created a Trello table detailing upcoming patches and enhancements to the Epic Games Store, but does not mention changes that allow independent games to benefit from multiple services. This makes sense, since it is more of a business decision than a technical decision.
This is questionable for AAA properties and game development studios, such as Ubisoft, but independent studios often cite the financial security provided by Epic as one of the main reasons they signed an exclusive deal. In the case of the Ooblets team, they explicitly stated that Epic was releasing the "burden of uncertainty" from their immediate financial future.
You can read our Darq review to find out what we thought about this independent adventure game.Joseph Knoop is a screenwriter / producer for IGN and he is only a dorq.
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