In a rare moment of very open communication, Gumberland, the indie developers behind upcoming farm sim and monster raising game Ooblets, wrote a lengthy blog post defending their deal with Epic. Gumberland recently signed a deal to release Ooblets exclusively on the Epic Games Store on PC. It’s a move that has become increasingly common for developers, and rage-inducing for many PC gamers.
It’s a note-worthy moment, as Gumberland is completely frank about the deal they made with Epic, their opinions on exclusivity, and the language they use to describe the gaming audience.
“Because Epic doesn’t yet have the same market share as their competitors, they offered us a minimum guarantee on sales that would match what we’d be wanting to earn if we were just selling Ooblets across all the stores. That takes a huge burden of uncertainty off of us because now we know that no matter what, the game won’t fail and we won’t be forced to move back in with our parents.
“Now we can just focus on making the game without worrying about keeping the lights on. The upfront money they’re providing means we’ll be able to afford more help and resources to start ramping up production and doing some cooler things.”
Here is Gumberland’s take on the Epic Games Store as an exclusive digital store for PC games:
“I can understand the frustration of having to buy different consoles to play the games you want, but there’s no extra cost to use EGS. The store and launcher just require a free signup. It’s not like having to pay for HBO and Netflix and Hulu to watch all the shows you want, it’s more like just having to press a button on your remote to change between free TV channels.
“It’s also really disappointing to see folks threatening to pirate a game just because they can’t get it on the game launcher they’re used to. Feeling like you’re owed the product of other people’s work on your terms or else you’ll steal it is the epitome of that word ‘entitlement’ that people use to discuss immature, toxic gamers.”
Ooblets is coming to PC (Epic Games Store) and Xbox One. A release date has not yet been announced.
