Kickstarter backers of Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night were also promised access to a retro spin-off mini-game based around the Bloodstained property called Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Backers have been asked to specify which platform they would like to access the spin-off game on, but they found out the hard way that GOG.com was not one of those platforms.
A concerned backer reached out to One Angry Gamer and shared an e-mail from Fangamer about the lack of availability for the DRM-free version of the spin-off game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon (which is a separate, smaller project from the original Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night). In the e-mail, Fangamer informed the backer…
“We were recently informed that the Bloodstained Retro spin-off game will not be available on GOG. Please select a different platform (Steam, PS4, XB1, PS Vita, or Nintendo Switch) for your Retro spin-off game before the May 18th 2018 platform-selection deadline by clicking the “Access Your Backer Survey” button below, then clicking the “Change Your Survey Answers” link.
“By default, your Retro spin-off game platform has been changed to Steam.
“Keep in mind that this does not affect your choice of platform for the main game Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which will still be available on GOG. We apologize for the trouble”
What this means is that the main game, Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, will still be available for purchase from GOG.com, and those who backed the game can still receive a DRM-free key from GOG.com, but the accompanying retro spin-off mini-game, Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon, will not be available from GOG.com.
The retro spin-off is being designed and published by Inti Creates and Artplay, not 505 Games and Koji Igarashi. However, the 505 Games global branding manager, Roberto Piraino, hopped into the Kickstarter comment section to explain why the retro spin-off from Inti Creates would not be available for GOG.com users, writing in a post that was published on May 11th, 2018…
“Hey everybody, regarding the retro mini game not being on GOG, long story short it was the result of an unfortunate miscommunication between Inti Creates, ArtPlay and Fangamer stemming from when the original KS campaign happened. The retro game was never going to be on GOG.
“It’s an unfortunate miscommunication, but rest assured it won’t affect anyone’s ability to download or enjoy their copy of the retro mini game.
“Also just a reminder that 505 Games isn’t involved with “Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon”. It’s a separate project being developed and published entirely by Inti Creates and ArtPlay.”
Lots of backers were obviously dissatisfied with the response from Piraino, given that many purposefully request GOG.com versions of a game in order to avoid dealing with the hassles of DRM. You’re also guaranteed to still be able to play the game even if the host client (i.e., such as Steam) is unavailable or fails to load.
One particular backer, Stephan Sokolow, explained why people prefer DRM-free versions of games and the principle behind the desire to own such copies, writing…
“I’ve written at greater length but, fundamentally, it’s about the “DRM-freeness is an unimportant oversight publishers might want to correct on existing purchases” philosophy underlying Steam as expressed by the lack of a “DRM-Free” indicator in Steam store pages and the Steam distribution paradigm, centered around automatic upgrades and the inability to rewind to a previous release of a game.
“If I’m going to have to jump through hoops to preserve a DRM-free release of a game, I might as well pirate it. (And I don’t pirate games as a matter of principle.)”
Fans are obviously not happy about this turn of events, and have been expressing their displeasure on the comment threads, forum boards, and backer sections for Bloodstained, but so far it doesn’t sound like Artplay or Inti Creates will be budging.
Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon will also be available as a separate purchase for non-backers for $9.99 for Steam, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS, Xbox One and the PS Vita.
