Meh, what’s to take seriously? Claims that this this will “kill Kickstarter”?
When they ran the KS, Steam had the de-facto monopoly. So much so, that “you will get a steam key” (or whatever they said) was shorthand for “we will deliver this to your PC”. You’re choosing to take them literally. That’s your right, of course.
But here’s the thing. Since then, things have changed. They decided to use another delivery company, because one is now widely available, that makes their costs more manageable.
What will happen in the future isn’t that “KS will die” or that projects will fail to fund. Projects will simply say “we will deliver this to you”, and that will be the end of it.
edit to add: I just caught up on the Epic thread, and see this is being hashed out over there. Sorry for spreading it in here.
There were other stores at the time of all of these Kickstarters. They couldn’t have specified Epic, of course, because Epic hadn’t launched their store yet, but they did specify the stores they were going to provide keys for, often including non-Steam options. People specifically want Steam, and backed in the expectation that they would receive Steam, and it is materially different from what was promised. It’s really not analogous to a delivery service because it also affects how you run the game once it’s out and what sort of back-end features it can use.
Now, whether “you can get it on Steam, you’ll just have to wait an extra year” is the level of betrayal some people are making out is I think much less supportable. But it isn’t a non-issue, either.
(Also I can’t imagine it will materially harm Kickstarter, or even make much of a dent in support for videogame Kickstarters. I think the bloom’s already left that rose due to a bunch of high-profile complete failures and the general sense that you can get these games cheaper later. The companies that were still worth backing getting bought by major publishers, on the other hand…)
It’s really simple: if you change the shit you said you were going to do, you offer a refund.
Even in the super hyperbolic example of FedEx vs UPS. I’ve heard stories of people saying they can’t use one of those services because they do some stupid thing like drop it off next door, leave it outside in a high crime area or public apartment pick up area, etc.
Let’s say shit changes and maybe your KS company needs to use FedEx now, but if you specifically said you were shipping UPS and now it has to change, maybe there’s a dude who’s game will now be stolen on delivery unless he takes off work and sits and waits for it. You don’t tell that guy to fuck off and deal with it, you offer him a refund, even if you don’t understand why he might not like that change. Because anything else is just bullshit.
You might say, “well he’s still getting the game” but to him it’s not the same. You don’t get to tell him it’s the same because you aren’t him.
Further, and back to the actual thing, why not take some of that money hat Epic just gave you to be an exclusive and refund the <5% of people who are both upset about Epic as a thing and motivated enough to ask for a refund because of it. Instead of having a bunch of crusading nerds following you around to every announcement badmouthing you.
Steam/Epic store aren’t just delivery companies. they’re service providers that you require an account with.
Traditionally a delivery company is only involved in the logistic pipeline once. Imagine if you had to log into DHLDIRECT instead of UPSNOW everytime you wished to play your guitar, or whatever?
But even so it’s a definite bait and switch. As A steam key Vs their own DRM free key Vs epic key all have different monetary values to me, i.e. pay more to get a Steam key.
Also, it doesn’t “cost” them.anything to give away Steam keys. But because they signed a deal with Epic they’re now prevented from doing that. I don’t see why they couldn’t ship Steam keys to backers and then exclusively sell to new customers on the Epic store.
SkateBIRD looks like a cute Tony Hawk-lite with a bird skating around miniature skate parks doing tricks and finding hats. There’s some chill jazzy hip-hop tunes to accompany your little bird’s escapades.
Glass Bottom Games is a small indie team with several small games under their belt like Hot Tin Roof, Jones on Fire, and Spartan Fist. SkateBIRD is a pretty big swing for them, and I think it looks delightful.
Itch is another store. Has been around a long time. More in the indie side of things. Let’s sellers set their own margins too. Has also other things then PC games. Though not a huge budget to market the selves.
Because while Valve doesn’t in practice limit the number of Steam keys you can generate and distribute, they do require the game to be also sold on Steam.
A team of former AAA devs in Montreal are making AWAY, a real-world survival game where you play a sugar glider (flying possum). It looks to be doing what the Shelter games have attempted, but without their odd art style and sometimes limited gameplay.
DFor some strange reason I thought AWAY was a boardgame and I was all cited about it since my nephew is really into boardgames and one about nature would be extra pertinent for him. So it’s a bummer that it’s a PC game.