Last Second Pull-Outs Don’t Always Work
Everyone likes a good sale, right? Customers do, at least. Do publishers and developers? I guess it depends on who you ask. On one hand, they might be happy to sacrifice a bit of profit to get their products into more hands. On the other hand, they might not be down with that. This was the case with a couple of publishers in Epic Games’ Epic Mega Sale that started yesterday. Two games were pulled from the Epic Games Store by Paradox Interactive and Klei Entertainment.
The upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 by Paradox and Oxygen Not Included by Klei Entertainment were both removed from the Epic Games Store in light of their sale. Right now, Klei Entertainment has not commented on why they did not want to participate in the sale. However, an Epic Games representative commented on Paradox’s exit from the sale. They said that Paradox was not aware of how exactly the sale would affect their product, so the game was temporarily removed. In a statement provided to Kotaku from Paradox, the future status of the game on the Epic Games Store was made clear. “The game will return to the store soon! Any purchases made while the game was discounted during the Epic Mega Sale will be honored and no Masquerade violations will be assessed.”
Games removed from the store during this sale will likely return when it is over. This kerfuffle makes me personally wonder what kind of agreements publishers and distributors come to before working together. Are there standard contracts between the two? How negotiable are they? Do publishers set the terms of their games on sale? Your ol’ pal Zane wonders these things.
Will you be taking part Epic’s sale? Let us know in the comments below.
Source: Kotaku