Epic Games has taken care of Kickstarter backers who are unhappy that the games they funded are leaving Steam and becoming exclusives of the Epic Games Store. All the refands to the players will be carried out by the latter.
Shenmue III backers can also count on a refund. This game has caused not the first, but especially a loud scandal due to the temporary departure from Steam. The backers who were promised Steam keys for their Kickstarter investment were faced with a choice: either play the PC version of Shenmue III through Epic Games, or wait a year and only then get the coveted keys.
The developer studio Ys Net faced the discontent of Shenmue fans, but refused to return the invested money. She later had to make an official apology under the threat of lawsuits.
Now Epic Games Store has joined the situation and promised to reimburse the players out of pocket. These refands will not hit the budget of Ys Net, which was allocated for the development of Shenmue III, so the game itself will not suffer.
The head of Epic Games, Tim Sweeney, confirmed that the company will adhere to the same policy for all future exclusives of its store. If a user-funded game suddenly moves to the Epic Games Store, the latter will seek the availability of the game in the promised stores or return the funds to its depositors.
We should add that in March a similar case occurred with the Phoenix Point Kickstarter project. The developers announced it for Steam, and then announced the transition to the Epic store. But they themselves promised the fans a full refund of the money invested. App2Top wrote about the players’ reaction to this decision here.
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