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RanceJustice
Supreme [H]ardness
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2003
- Messages
- 6,623
This is absolutely unacceptable - I've written about it on the topic in the Gaming section. Those that may not know about this title, this is developed by the original dev behind many Castlevania games, notably the " Castlevania: Symphony of the Night" title that has become a classic. Much like Hideo Kojima, Koji Igarashi (known as IGA online casually ) likely knows Konami wasn't interested in making this kind of game anymore, so went to crowdfund the creation of a modern spiritual successor in the form of Bloodstained, via Kickstarter around 4 years ago. From the very beginning, the title offered Mac and most notably of all Linux platforms as part of the core features and subsequently rose to become a massive crowdfunding success! Blowing past the $500,000 requirement, they knocked down tons of stretch goals and eventually raised approx $5.500,000, which makes it one of the most successful crowdfunding campaigns for a non-MMO game to date. While the game has taken quite some time to develop, there was evidence of progress, including the full release of the stretch goal "mini game prequel" which turned into "Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon" , an 8-bit, classic Castlevania style title with a lot of depth. It was free to all backers and can be bought for $10 on Steam for others. It launched solely on Windows, but there was an announcement that Mac / Linux support would be on the way; clearly the current announcement makes me doubt this as well. Curse of the Moon, along with several backer Alphas, showed progress and refinement so I was willing to give them the time to get the game done right. Needless to say today's bombshell was a surprise.
It is completely unacceptable to remove Linux and Mac support, core features included since the start of the campaign, at all much less this far into the project. The way it was done made things even worse, with an unceremonious post muttering something about middleware and online play, before saying they're sorry and they had to remove Mac and Linux support; pick another platform, No Refunds! The latter bit about no refunds offered is icing on the cake, adding insult to injury. I've backed quite a few software and hardware campaigns alike (most successful, a few less so) and I've seen full refunds offered for delays and much more minor things than canceling a whole OS! Would anyone feel comfortable about picking another platform if they removed ALL PC support entirely? Of course not, some may not even have Playstations or Switches etc...as they thought they were backing a PC title! Removal of Linux and Mac mean at minimum that users of these OSes would theoretically have to pay for a Windows license in order to run the game on a supported OS. I';ve seen a call for Kickstarter backers to report the campaign as in breach of policy, not to mention local legal implications (ie notably jurisdictions such as Europe that offer stronger protections guaranteeing refunds in more conditions) so I would not at all be surprised if that bit changes if nothing else. However, that is far from the crux of the issue.
Keep in mind that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is developed not by some small indie studio but by a multi faceted project from multiple dev houses including IntiCreates, WayForward, and published by 505 Games. Normally crowdfunded projects offer greater transparency in their development and, though they haven't been as radical as some projects showing all the inner workings of the studio good and bad alike nearly day to day, they've been offering updates every so often and other info. Thus, it makes it even worse that today's announcement about the removal of two PC OSes that were core features, gave so little information. They mentioned something about "middleware and online play" being the motivating factor - surely they considered this possibility during the previous 4 years of development, given these two OSes were part of the core feature set, right? Even if they did run into issues later, there was nothing informing the community, asking for solutions, polling for different ideas etc. The vast majority of the game's underlying engines and systems are Linux compatible, so it seems like there could be alternative paths and the community could be involved in some way. Furthermore, it is somewhat significant in the lack of information that they didn't simply delay Mac and Linux releases. In that case, I wouldn't be happy but I could be more understanding were they forthright about it and kept Linux/Mac on the docket. However they went right for completely removing support for these OSes! While I can't say for certain, this begins to feel like an excuse made at the behest of a publisher or developer rushing to finish the damn thing, cutting corners for the quickest implementation, thereby pruning away platforms that either don't work with whatever middleware they decided to staple in or were deemed by bean counters to be considered not profitable enough to spend the time. Depressingly, this is not the first time something like this has happened, causing even more cynicism among Linux users, but many things make this situation worse.
Crowdfunding is and should be different from traditional game development; different strengths and weaknesses, benefits and detriments. However, what we see happening here with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night should NOT be accepted as "just another crowdfunding failure" or "can't trust anyone about Linux until its actually done". That kind of cynicism depresses the amount of really great, capable titles that can be developed via these methods and developers who are willing to support Mac and Linux may not get as much support for their titles because of cynical and wary users. This is simply one company, one campaign behaving badly - it should not accepted, it should not be justified, it should not be tolerated. Bloodstained is a high profile title, crowdfunded into the millions, developed by an all-star team of industry veterans. They launched a crowdfunding campaign and busted tons of stretch goals, with Mac and Linux attractive reasons to back the project. Backers already paid in part because of their inclusion, only to have these critical features dropped entirely years into development?! Even if you're not a Mac or Linux user, I think everyone should stand together in solidarity and insist on their return for the principle of it - delivering what was promised. Maybe it takes more time, more money etc.. to do it right, but if you advertise core features and stretch goals, they should be included. Given all the aspects of the project and this decision, I think this is worth calling the banners so to speak , writing letters and getting as many individuals and organizations (including games media perhaps) involved to request more information, the return of Linux / Mac support, and refunds for those who want them. A downpour of polite but firm requests expressing their concern and disappointment may help them revisit the issue. Failing that, a negative PR/review/news hailstorm may help to sway the "bean counters/suits" or others unreachable by appeals to good-nature or honorable intent.
With luck there will be sufficient outcry as to revisit the issue, sharing more information with the community and implementing a plan to restore Mac/Linux support.
It is completely unacceptable to remove Linux and Mac support, core features included since the start of the campaign, at all much less this far into the project. The way it was done made things even worse, with an unceremonious post muttering something about middleware and online play, before saying they're sorry and they had to remove Mac and Linux support; pick another platform, No Refunds! The latter bit about no refunds offered is icing on the cake, adding insult to injury. I've backed quite a few software and hardware campaigns alike (most successful, a few less so) and I've seen full refunds offered for delays and much more minor things than canceling a whole OS! Would anyone feel comfortable about picking another platform if they removed ALL PC support entirely? Of course not, some may not even have Playstations or Switches etc...as they thought they were backing a PC title! Removal of Linux and Mac mean at minimum that users of these OSes would theoretically have to pay for a Windows license in order to run the game on a supported OS. I';ve seen a call for Kickstarter backers to report the campaign as in breach of policy, not to mention local legal implications (ie notably jurisdictions such as Europe that offer stronger protections guaranteeing refunds in more conditions) so I would not at all be surprised if that bit changes if nothing else. However, that is far from the crux of the issue.
Keep in mind that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is developed not by some small indie studio but by a multi faceted project from multiple dev houses including IntiCreates, WayForward, and published by 505 Games. Normally crowdfunded projects offer greater transparency in their development and, though they haven't been as radical as some projects showing all the inner workings of the studio good and bad alike nearly day to day, they've been offering updates every so often and other info. Thus, it makes it even worse that today's announcement about the removal of two PC OSes that were core features, gave so little information. They mentioned something about "middleware and online play" being the motivating factor - surely they considered this possibility during the previous 4 years of development, given these two OSes were part of the core feature set, right? Even if they did run into issues later, there was nothing informing the community, asking for solutions, polling for different ideas etc. The vast majority of the game's underlying engines and systems are Linux compatible, so it seems like there could be alternative paths and the community could be involved in some way. Furthermore, it is somewhat significant in the lack of information that they didn't simply delay Mac and Linux releases. In that case, I wouldn't be happy but I could be more understanding were they forthright about it and kept Linux/Mac on the docket. However they went right for completely removing support for these OSes! While I can't say for certain, this begins to feel like an excuse made at the behest of a publisher or developer rushing to finish the damn thing, cutting corners for the quickest implementation, thereby pruning away platforms that either don't work with whatever middleware they decided to staple in or were deemed by bean counters to be considered not profitable enough to spend the time. Depressingly, this is not the first time something like this has happened, causing even more cynicism among Linux users, but many things make this situation worse.
Crowdfunding is and should be different from traditional game development; different strengths and weaknesses, benefits and detriments. However, what we see happening here with Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night should NOT be accepted as "just another crowdfunding failure" or "can't trust anyone about Linux until its actually done". That kind of cynicism depresses the amount of really great, capable titles that can be developed via these methods and developers who are willing to support Mac and Linux may not get as much support for their titles because of cynical and wary users. This is simply one company, one campaign behaving badly - it should not accepted, it should not be justified, it should not be tolerated. Bloodstained is a high profile title, crowdfunded into the millions, developed by an all-star team of industry veterans. They launched a crowdfunding campaign and busted tons of stretch goals, with Mac and Linux attractive reasons to back the project. Backers already paid in part because of their inclusion, only to have these critical features dropped entirely years into development?! Even if you're not a Mac or Linux user, I think everyone should stand together in solidarity and insist on their return for the principle of it - delivering what was promised. Maybe it takes more time, more money etc.. to do it right, but if you advertise core features and stretch goals, they should be included. Given all the aspects of the project and this decision, I think this is worth calling the banners so to speak , writing letters and getting as many individuals and organizations (including games media perhaps) involved to request more information, the return of Linux / Mac support, and refunds for those who want them. A downpour of polite but firm requests expressing their concern and disappointment may help them revisit the issue. Failing that, a negative PR/review/news hailstorm may help to sway the "bean counters/suits" or others unreachable by appeals to good-nature or honorable intent.
With luck there will be sufficient outcry as to revisit the issue, sharing more information with the community and implementing a plan to restore Mac/Linux support.
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