Upcoming indie game Ooblets developer Glumberland reports that they’ve received thousands of threats following their announcement of a temporary Epic Games Store exclusivity arrangement. This outburst is the latest of many such attacks leveled at developers who join Epic’s storefront, which launched in December 2018. Since then the store has been met with much derision and criticism from the gaming community, even though Epic Game’s business decisions have enticed developers of all sizes to join them.
Glumberland announced their deal with Fortnite’s Epic Games last week in a blog post that was both refreshingly honest and at the same time incredibly condescending. While accurately noting that their deal with Epic would guarantee a minimum sales payment, which means they can continue development without constantly worrying about going broke, they described the entire process in the tone of a sneering parent explaining the completely obvious to a child. Phrases like “What’d be next? Game consoles paying for games to be exclusive on their consoles? Netflix paying for exclusive shows? Newspapers paying for exclusive articles? It’d be some sort of late capitalist dystopia” didn’t sit well with readers, even though the facts behind the decision were solid. It was honest but unfortunate wording, and people responded with such an intense fervor that it shocked Rebecca Cordingley and Ben Wasser, the two-person team that makes up the entirety of Glumberland, to their cores.
“We really misjudged how angry so many people would be,” the developers said in a recent Patreon post, also noting that the number of hateful messages could’ve reached into the tens of thousands. “I had no idea it was this bad,” the statement reads. It hasn’t just been angry messages, either, as WCCFTech reports numerous fabricated and offensive videos and screenshots of Glumberland’s Ben Wasser have suddenly appeared on the internet, prompting him to take to Twitter and ask that people report the fake videos.
At first, the only official word from Epic Games regarding the Ooblets announcement came from CEO Tim Sweeney’s personal Twitter, saying was “IT WAS AWESOME!”. After the continuous intense backlash, however, Epic released a formal statement condemning the “coordinated and deliberate creation and promotion of false information” as well as calling out the “harassment of partners, promoters of hateful themes, and intimidation of those with opposing views.” In the statement, Epic vowed to continue to work together with game developers and other partners to build “what we believe will be a healthier and more competitive multi-store work for the future.” They promised to continue to support their partners and developers, and said that everyone should stand up to any and all manners of abuse.
While the Epic Games Store still lacks many features that PC users have come to expect after the last decade of Steam refinements, it’s hard to argue that the business model they offer to independent developers isn’t enticing when compared to Valve’s baseline 30% take. Game development is an expensive and time-consuming job, and if Epic Games can offer to cover costs and sales in such a way that companies know that no matter what at least they are going to break even and remain employed throughout, it’s easy to understand why so many developers take them up on it. Glumberland, without question, could have chosen better words to describe why they made the decision they did for Ooblets, but they shouldn’t be threatened, doxxed, or harassed for it. No one should do any of those things over a video game. That’s just common sense.
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Source: WCCFTech
