This one might be what finally kills Kickstarter for PC games.
Fuck these guys.
There were a few mentioned. I think all are timed exclusive except Cyberpunk 2077.
- Atomicrops
- Auto Chess
- Chivalry 2
- Cyberpunk 2077
- Griftlands
- The Pathless
- Phantom Brigade
- Rune 2
- Shenmue 3
- The Sojourn
- Solar Ash Kingdom
- Twin Mirror
- Untitled Goose Game
- What The Golf?
- Zombie Army 4: Dead War
For Kickstarter’s sake it’s good that they aren’t exclusively a video game crowdfunding platform. Fig might run into some difficulties drawing money below their investor tiers.
That’s bonkers. We’re in a maybe one-year window where Kickstarters were funded before the EGS was a thing and fulfilled after it was a thing. PC game Kickstarters that launch now will not chain themselves to a platform (or perhaps will do so knowing the implications). And eventually Epic’s exclusivity push will have fulfilled its purpose of acclimating the market to their existence and they’ll stop offering it to every promising project.
Unfortunately for developers, now people will get their panties in a wad unless campaigns specifically pledge not to accept an exclusivity deal with Epic, refusing to support them otherwise.
I’m sure it could be a factor, but let’s not go assuming that PC gamers on Kickstarter are monolithically anti-Epic.
Of course not, but I fear that the virulently anti-EGS will brigade and target campaigns trying to extract such promises.
They don’t have to be monolithic. Let’s say it’s 25%. No one is going to leave 25% of their possible revenue on the floor, especially if it means not getting enough to make the thing they want to make.
If I was a smart developer I’d just make vague promises to put my game on Steam, suck up all that sweet kickstarter money then go Epic exclusive for some extra Fornite cherries. We call that a win-win :)
EDIT: brb… just setting up my kickstarter campaign
EDIT2: tbaldree - you missed a trick there buddy :)
Who needs backers. Developers should all go straight to Tim, hats in hands.
Looks like the team is denying refund requests too this time.
Before Epic, where any Kickstarter games not promised on Steam exclusively (well, exclusively on the PC)?
I am curious of any of the games gave options for GoG or other stores that didn’t simple sell Steam Keys.
Several projects offered Steam or GOG keys. Phoenix Point promised either a Steam or GOG key (backer selects one at redemption time). I rarely back crowdsourced projects, but I specifically backed that project because they were offering a GOG key which was nice at the time.
Some projects may have offered the option to get the game platform free too, though I can’t remember specific examples at the moment.
Both the Divinity Original Sin games offered both Steam and GOG keys to Kickstarter backers :)
RimWorld always offered a unlocked download to backers, with the hint of a Steam key one day.
Oh no, poor developers might have another promise to ignore… Don’t worry, I won’t be kickstarting anything anymore, win-win for developers.
The latter is kinda silly, but anyway, HBS, inXile and Obsidian offered it too.
Cool. Okay, did any games that offer more than one platform go exclusive to Epic? Or is it only steam exclusives that are being changed to Epic Exclusives?
I am wondering if the steam exclusives games were listed as steam exclusives simple because before Epic came along, steam was the only viable platform at the time that made sense (for small games, I assume handling multiple platforms might not be possible, economically).
…Phoenix Point?
I don’t think these games were ever Steam exclusives, they just advertised for the most popular store.