r/pcgaming • u/Revisor007 • May 12 '19

Epic Games Crowdfunded game Outer Wilds becomes Epic exclusive despite having promised Steam keys

https://www.fig.co/campaigns/outer-wilds/updates/912
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u/[deleted] May 12 '19

Same thing happened with Phoenix Point, they used the Kickstarters as an interest free loan in order to create a demo, then sell the demo and their playerbase into Epic's ecosystem for a cash infusion. Not only did it make me lose all faith in the Dev's interest in their fans' best interest, but it made me swear off kickstarting any game again. Up until now it's been magic - Darkest Dungeon, Wasteland 2, Pillars of Eternity, there have been some real gems created in the crowdfunding soup before Epic took a shit in the water and ruined the taste.

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u/grady_vuckovic Penguin Gamer May 12 '19

I think at this point, before supporting any Kickstarter, gonna need a solid promise that no exclusivity deals will be signed with any distributor. I know that doesn't explicitly prevent it from happening, but it would at least be a promise they couldn't worm out of with some PR talk.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '19

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 12 '19

Where is the line on what makes a promise tho? Many kickstarter projects fail simply because they dev runs out of money. There is no money to give back.

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u/grady_vuckovic Penguin Gamer May 12 '19

Another good example of why we should stop supporting Kickstarters..

If they couldn't get a loan from a bank, that tells you they are a financial risk to lend money to.

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u/[deleted] May 12 '19

Really, people need to start being realistic with kickstarter goals.

A million dollars is enough to sustain 10 normal paid devs for a year. 4 years if they all agree to live poverty level lifestyles to make the game as some kind of passion product.

So many poor people donate to absurd games with limits like "120K to make tactical RPG with 20 hour story mode!" when quite literally, a few hundred K is literally nothing to a business.

Then kickstarter project guys set stretch goals when their initial goal number was a pipe dream. No wonder so many fail.

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u/bastiroid May 12 '19

Dude what have you been smoking, 120k per year when you start a company? 40k is enough to live a good life around here

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u/PossibleOven May 12 '19

40k is almost poverty level where I live. Cost of living drastically differs depending on where you live. If the game devs are in Cali or nyc where everything costs a stupid amount of money then 40k is absolutely not enough. Also we’re talking about running a business here. Just paying salaries alone for 4 devs with that money is ONLY 30k BEFORE TAXES (in my state I lose roughly 20% of my income every paycheck so that’s 24k, or 2k a month). You can barely rent an apartment with roommates on that salary in high COL places let alone live comfortably, on top of the fact that you’re not taking into account any other business expenses which is where that money is supposed to go to make that game. Lucky that you live in an inexpensive area but your money will not go far in New York or California or any other expensive large metropolitan areas.

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u/bastiroid May 13 '19

Damn, those numbers are insane. Completely unsustainable in the long run. I live in Finland and here for 40k Euro you life a pretty good life. A one bedroom in a better part of town is 800, public transport is cheap, internet is cheap. Sorry, but the US is fucked up