German solo developer Matthias Linda has decided to take legal action against First Press Games. He claimed that the publisher has not released all the promised physical versions of the role-playing game Chained Echoes.
Chained Echoes
Linda announced his plans to go to court on the Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign page for Chained Echoes. He explained that First Press Games had committed to publishing several editions of the game, including collector's editions, two years ago, but only one has gone to print so far — the standard edition for PlayStation 4.
“I am severing business ties with First Press Games and preparing a lawsuit. This decision was not easy for me and was made after careful consideration. Please understand that for legal reasons, I cannot go into details,” said Linda.
Linda offered two options to players who backed the physical versions of Chained Echoes: request a refund from him or wait for the disc/cartridge release from another publisher.
First Press Games has not commented on the situation.
Chained Echoes is a pixel JRPG inspired by SNES-era games. Its digital release took place in December 2022 and was warmly received by both gamers and critics. The game received a score of 91 on Metacritic, and its rating on Steam currently stands at a “Very Positive” 88% based on 7.2 thousand reviews.