Any news related to the Epic Games Store is inevitably controversial these days, but taunting the controversy is inflammatory at best. Nevertheless, this past week Ooblets developer Glumberland announced its game's confirmed Epic exclusivity plans. The announcement came via a lengthy post to Ooblets' official website and addressed many potential questions and concerns. However, the post also went out of its way be dismissive towards critics of the Epic Games Store.
At the end of Glumberland's post, the anger surrounding the Epic Games Store is directly addressed. "I get the appeal of wanting to seek out things to get angry about. Venting anger is cathartic and natural, but let's have just a little perspective about what we decide to get angry about." The post then lists examples such as climate change and human rights abuses, as well as joke examples like the last season of Game of Thrones. And that's just one of many examples of dismissive and sarcastic commentary written in the blog.
The backlash following the announcement was immediate, with message boards and YouTube lighting up to offer comment. Epic Game Store critics accuse Glumberland of being condescending and arrogant while making generalizations that are insulting. Citing climate change as a reason for game players not to be angry about gamer developers' business decisions has been described as deflecting at best. Both the tone and the content of the blog are being seen in a negative light.
Things have unfortunately continued to escalate from there. Tim Sweeney, the owner of Epic Games, responded to the controversy by posting to Twitter "I have reviewed the tone of the Ooblets exclusivity announcement and wish to make the following official announcement" and then "IT WAS AWESOME!" Glumberland has also posted some messages to its Patreon which have been confusing, leading to misinterpretation and further frustration. The whole situation is very messy.
The heart of Glumberland's message does ring true, which makes the rest of the situation so disappointing. Glumberland was offered an amount of money from Epic Games to ensure that not only could the studio finish Ooblets to its own standards, but also have a future afterward. It's easy to understand why an indie studio would accept an offer like that. The rest of Glumberland's message, no matter its intentions, have only served to provoke.
Ooblets has no current release window and will be coming to both PC and Xbox One.
Source: Glumberland