Backers Denied Refunds as Shenmue 3 Goes Epic Exclusive

[Tsing]

Shenmue 3 was originally conceived on June 15, 2015 as a Kickstarter project. The plan was to distribute the long-awaited sequel on Steam.

Now, four years later, it’s an Epic Games Store exclusive. Backers are pissed.

Some fans are so upset that they tried to get a refund. Unfortunately, Deep Silver and Ys Net have denied these requests.

The only decent news is that Shenmue 3 is still coming to Steam—a year later.

"Thank you very much for contacting us," begins the official reply. "The launch was previously planned for distribution on Steam, however it was decided together with Deep Silver after much discussion that the Epic Games Store would be the best distribution platform option."

"Shenmue III will be distributed through the Epic Games Store and will require the Epic Games Store Client to activate. We apologize for the sudden change in platform, however, refunds will not be granted for this change. We thank you for your support and look forward to delivering the Shenmue experience fans everywhere have been waiting so long for."

 

[alxlwson]

Well, at the end of the day, everyone still gets the get they backed...

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

DS is digging a hole for themselves with these tactics. I understand the bottom line is profits, and the backers will still get what they gave money for, but customers in general don't like when something is changed and they're denied the option of a refund.

I've been on numerous threads about the Epic exclusives controversies and I know it's a pretty volatile topic for gamer's right now. This won't help.

 

[Armenius]

I think the fact that both Deep Silver and 4A have stopped talking about Metro: Exodus sales on EGS, and the fact that they recently had an "unplanned" release on the Microsoft Store, is quite telling about how well this is working out from them. I wonder if Deep Silver entered into some kind of contract with Epic extending beyond Metro, or they're just waiting it out to see if the furor will die down and people will bend the knee. Either way it will be interesting to see how this plays out over the next year. Oculus is currently making the same exclusivity mistakes again with the Quest.

 

[Riccochet]

Does it matter? Oh noes! I need to open up EGS instead of Steam to play my game! What ever shall I do?!?!

I have so many **** launchers on my PC I honestly stopped giving a **** if a game is on Steam, Epic, Battle.NET, Bethesda, UPlay, Origin.....open launcher, launch game, play.

 

[SuicidalGoat]

Does it matter? Oh noes! I need to open up EGS instead of Steam to play my game! What ever shall I do?!?!

I have so many **** launchers on my PC I honestly stopped giving a **** if a game is on Steam, Epic, Battle.NET, Bethesda, UPlay, Origin.....open launcher, launch game, play.

Have you used EGS? How did you go about handling random EGS popups that force minimize other games you are playing?

Similar thing just recently happened with Rune 2 and Epic. Human Head Studios had been running beta tests through Steam with preorders and a release date of December 2018. Suddenly there is a few month delay in release and then the news drops they are EGS exclusive now and a Steam release probably a year later.

 

[SeymourGore]

I'm curious to see if the "exclusive outrage" will affect sales at all (ie: sales pickup after the Steam release). I remember seeing Metro: Exodus claiming a boost from their Epic deal, but wondered if that was more to do with the high profile that Metro: Exodus had.

 

[Armenius]

I think initial sales numbers for Metro: Exodus included the copies that Epic bought themselves. It was also extremely disingenuous to use viewer numbers of paid influencers on Twitch to gleefully express how well the game was doing.

 

[Riccochet]

Have you used EGS? How did you go about handling random EGS popups that force minimize other games you are playing?

Similar thing just recently happened with Rune 2 and Epic. Human Head Studios had been running beta tests through Steam with preorders and a release date of December 2018. Suddenly there is a few month delay in release and then the news drops they are EGS exclusive now and a Steam release probably a year later.

I don't have those issues. It's worked fine for me.