Epic Games has come under a lot criticism over recent months. It all comes from the publisher’s decision to increase the number of exclusive games coming to their relatively new digital store. In recent weeks, many fans have been upset with the news that crowdfunded title Shenmue III is going to be an Epic Games Store exclusive for a year. Especially, after it was revealed that those who opted to purchase a Steam key for the game were not going to be refunded. At least that was the case until Epic announced that they will be covering the refunds for players who don’t want to purchase the game through their store.
Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney stepped in to assure fans they will cover refunds for the people who backed the game on PC. They said they will cover the refunds to ensure that Ys Net doesn’t use any of its funds it raised via Kickstarter to complete the game. He also spoke about how Epic Games will make exclusive games in the future. Sweeney said “When future games go Epic-exclusive after offering crowdfunding rewards on other PC stores, we’ll either coordinate with colleagues at the other stores to ensure key availability in advance, or guarantee refunds at announcement time.”
Developer Ys Net recently tried to cover fan refunds by posting ways to get your money back for those looking to get out of the store exclusivity for Shenmue III. They initially planned to release the game for Steam but now due to recent exclusivity deals, players using the PC digital store front will have to wait a year to purchase the game there.
Fans who pledged to get the game on PC could choose between a physical copy with an EGS key, an EGS key or could switch to the PS4 version of the game in digital or physical form. Many fans were not happy with either of these options and many wanted full refunds, which there was no option for, until Epic stepped in.
Although people are still not happy about Shenmue III being exclusive to the Epic Games Store on PC, at least players can now get refunds for the game if they choose to do so. We hope that everyone will be able to enjoy Shenmue III when it releases on 27 August for the PC and PlayStation 4 despite exclusivity issues.
How do you feel about Shenmue III being exclusive to the Epic Games store?
