A new drama has arrived related to the exclusivity of games in the Epic Games Store. Indie studio Glumberland, which created Ooblets, was bullied because of a deal with “epics”.
Glumberland consists of two developers: Rebecca Cordingley and Ben Wasser. Their brainchild — the casual simulator Ooblets — is being prepared for release on Xbox One and PC. For the release on the latest platform, they chose Epic Games Store and signed a contract for temporary exclusivity.
Glumberland received a certain amount from the store. Epic Games covered the financial losses of the indie studio associated with the rejection of other stores. Thanks to this, developers will be able to finish Ooblets and add all the conceived functions to it.
The Glumberland audience didn’t like the deal. From the very beginning, the studio expected that there would be dissatisfied (she reported this on Twitter). But the developers were not ready for the fact that there will be “thousands, if not tens of thousands” of such dissatisfied people.
Cordingly and Wesser reported that they receive messages from angry fans “on all possible platforms without stopping.” Before the deal with Epic Games, players were waiting for Ooblets and expressed support for its creators. But now the whole Internet seems to have taken up arms against them, writes Gamesindustry.biz . According to Wesser, the hatred went beyond the small community on Patreon of 1,101 people.
For the last two days I've been crying nonstop and I feel like the world has collapsed. It never occurred to me what it means to be a victim of harassment on the Internet.
Statement by one of the developers of Glumberland
The author of the book “Blood, Sweat and Pixels” Jason Schreier reacted to the situation. During a dispute with disappointed players on Twitter, he stated that he supports “any methods that will allow developers to stay in this unstable market.” Meanwhile, the scandal is gaining momentum.
There may be two reasons for such hatred. Firstly, many of the messages received express contempt for the authors because they received money from Epic Games.
Secondly, it may be in Steam. Scandals due to the temporary exclusivity of titles in the Epic Games Store have happened before. All of them were connected with the fact that the authors of a particular game took the project from Steam contrary to their promises. In the case of Ooblets, the situation is also complicated by the fact that the game already has a Steam page (albeit without a release date).
Ooblets is a life simulator under development since 2016. Its distinctive feature is a bright visual style. Players create their own characters and manage a small farm. Creatures grown on it (ooblets, similar to Pokemon) can fight with each other.
Also on the topic:
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