Unless E3 has completely fried your brain and made you lose all sense of time, you may remember back on Friday that Super Rare Games — one of the major publishers that help indie studios release physical editions of their games — announced "Super Rare Shorts", which was their plan to fund physical-only indie releases. (We spoke to them about it, if you want a little more context.)
Now, while physical-only releases may be good news to collectors, it was worrying news for others, who had concerns about availability, short pre-order windows, and generally just being excluded from playing certain games. Friend of the site (and occasional NL contributor) Chris Scullion wrote about the "worrying precedent" that physical-only releases might set, also citing Devolver's similar plan for Demon Throttle:
"I have a few concerns about this.
The first is obvious: with limited pre-order windows – four months in Devolver’s case and only 30 days in Super Rare’s – players are essentially being asked to make these purchases entirely in good faith, without any idea of what they’re actually buying.
What’s more, there’s no scope for due diligence. If you’re the type who prefers to wait for reviews, forget it. By the time these games are produced and arrive in players’ hands, the pre-order window will be long gone.
As such, if any of these games turn out to be mini masterpieces, there will be no way for players to spread the word and tell others to check the game out, because there would no longer be any way to purchase it."
It seems that Scullion's piece — and other criticism on social media — struck a chord with gamers, as Super Rare Games took the weekend to re-examine their plan. "We could stubbornly defend ourselves," they said in a statement on Twitter, "but ultimately — the criticism is 100% right."
In the statement, they describe a couple of changes that they plan to make to Super Rare Shorts, which can be summarised as follows:
- The games will no longer be exclusive to the physical edition, and will go on sale on itch.io 6 months after the physical release
- The pre-order window has been expanded from 4 weeks to 6 weeks
Super Rare Games also took the time to answer some frequently asked questions following the announcement:
- The digital versions on itch.io will be DRM-free
- Super Rare will not own the IP rights, so developers are free to make sequels or spin-offs
- The quantities are unlimited; they will print as many copies as there are orders
- There will be "plenty of advance notice" when a Shorts game is going on sale
- There will be trailers, information, livestreams, and Q&As that will coincide with the pre-order window, and reviewers will be sent early copies
- The name "Shorts" does not necessarily mean that the games are short — they're just more experimental
- All Shorts will come content complete, and there will never be updates or DLC (although bug patches may still be necessary)
- There will be 3-4 Shorts a year
"Hopefully this addresses the major points being made — and again, we're really sorry for not having addressed this before we revealed Super Rare Shorts," reads the statement.
So, what are your thoughts? Are you happy to see Super Rare listening to fan feedback, or did you think physical-only games were a great idea? Let us know in the comments!
[source twitter.com]
Comments 43
How do you load a game from Itch.io onto the Switch?
@mike_intv unless itch.io comes to Switch... you can't. So these games will only be physical on Switch.
@mike_intv You don’t. They’ll be physically exclusive on the Switch, playable on PC through itch.io
Much better! Yes!
@nessisonett @KateGray So yeah problem not solved. Hopefully something is done to make it workable on consoles.
So in other words they're still not fixing the issue of artificial scarcity.
@KateGray That's my point. They are supposed to be Switch games — aren't they. I wonder how well they will run on PC just posting up the code. (I am perfectly willing to accept that I may be off-base on that assertion. But it is an interesting conundrum).
In Devolver Digital's case, going physical only is absolutely part of a gimmick, with them openly acknowledging that scalpers will have their eyes on it. And as a gimmick, its genius. They nailed the presentation as always.
But as a business model for game distribution, its not the best move in this day and age to go physical only. Changing this to a 6-month exclusivity window before going digital is a necessary compromise. It still makes it fell "special" without having to artificially amputate a fraction of the game's total sales.
(Oh snap... just read the other comments about itch.io... well dang.)
I'm happy to see that the mass criticism had an impact, but itch.io only is still cutting out all console owners that don't get the physical. I'd like to see them change course even more radically.
"All Shorts will come content complete, and there will never be updates or DLC (although bug patches may still be necessary)"
Gotta admit, I don't see how this is a selling point at all. I get the whole idea of pressuring devs to not push an unfinished product out the door, but practically every indie game I've played that's gotten post-launch updates has been notably improved with the new content and features.
Why do some people want to specifically remove the ability for devs to improve their games?
There has been a lot of understandable grievance with sites like Super Rare or Limited Run games. And for a long time my defense was that limited runs are not the alternative to unlimited runs, but instead to no physical release at all.
This concept was always kind of bad and I appreciate the steps they've made
I would grudgingly be OK with this for a Nintendo first-party game, because I'm pretty sure of the entertainment value and quality, but not for indie developers. Not enough credibility for me to invest. How about releasing a demo on Switch first?
Funny how them poking fun at likely Nintendo's "limited time releases" wound up being worse than what Nintendo does. Though this is essentially how trying to buy an amiibo works.
I love how a digital only games are fine because they are not limited but a physical only games are bad now because people do not want to buy them at their pre-release window. Some things are limited for a reason.
The Digital era is here indeed.
Ok, but what if the games are crap? As no one will be able to play them until you buy them. Sorry but this seems a bit stupid except for those who are buying them just to collect, which I am against and give scalpers a massive boost to buy them straight off if they are good and holding people to ransom on them
@ATaco When did Super Rare Games make fun Nintedo's limited time releases?
Once you read a review for one of these games, it's too late. There have been several great games I hadn't even heard of until seeing a review on Nintendo Life. I won't buy from scalpers; I'd rather go without.
Hahaha, this is still incredibly dumb and one step closer to the inevitble Humble Bundle of Steam keys.
So what's wrong with just putting these on the eShop sixth month after the physical time exclusivity ended?
DRM-Free is good!
@Wilforce They said they will print to order forever... but I guess you want digital on switch since you hack your switch or something.
@Gamer_Griff I'll pay top dollar for whatever I want but usually save a ton after the hype fades and people forget about things.
Really glad to hear this and I seriously respect them for listening to the criticism. Itch.io is better than nothing!
@ChakraStomps I guess you make a lot of wrong assumptions about people who prefer digital libraries. I don't like swapping cards out, especially when a game features local multiplayer, call it jaded by Steam and GoG if you will. If I lost every game I physically own at least I can continue to play with friends and family as long as I still have a functional Switch. I used to buy all physical until about 2011, but game boxes take up too much space and I don't want to consolidate a bunch of games into one small storage solution. And before you point out the argument that "you could lose games after X years because you don't really own them" - you're right and I have, but I don't really care because of the physical games that I own - I've never felt the desire to go back and play them. I haven't had a craving to break out my N64 to play GoldenEye or Mario Golf, my SNES to play DKC, my Genesis to play Gadget Twins, or any other combination of legacy games and consoles that meant a lot to me 20 years ago. That's not me - though I have friends who do that all the time. The notion that to you lose ownership just because you have it digital is stupid in my mind ... They won't accrue value, but the memories I have with them will always be there. I own the memories and experiences that I share with friends and family playing games. Am I a little sad that I can't play Turtles in Time today? Yeah, but the memories I have in the arcade as teen are still with me, and if I were to go back and play it today, then I'd only realize that the memories are jaded by time and the game is a token sink that challenges the value of a modern console game just for an hour of gameplay. Not appreciating the tactile nature of a physical game cart doesn't reduce my status as a gamer, so don't lump me up like some hacker who's seeking to violate copyright law for personal gain.
@SwitchVogel One day, Switch servers will be gone and someone will have a game on a cart that would hypothetically be unplayable due to a bug that was missed when the cart was printed, while the dev said "oh, we'll just patch it, no worries."
Now, had the dev intended to never go back to that game again, they'll want to do their due diligence and make absolutely sure there are no game-breaking bugs when the game goes gold. This falls in line with game preservation on an official cart.
@mike_intv
These days it's very common for games to be made in cross-platform engines like Unity, where it'd be simple for the dev to click a button and build a version for PC/Switch/PS/Xbox/phones/whatever the engine supports. Makes ports easier but means you have to cope with Unity's long load times and crashing issues.
If you press + on a Switch game icon, and choose 'Intellectual Property Notices', a lot of smaller games will mention being made in Unity, and it wouldn't surprise me if all these Shorts are made in Unity too.
@ChakraStomps
Only for 6 weeks, not forever.
@Kilroy That's not what this is about though, the bullet point specifically mentions that bug patches may still be needed. I'm talking about their stance against new content, which here seems to be forbidden. I just don't see a point in limiting a dev's ability to add extra content to their game if it's well-received and there's still some mileage they can get out of it.
@bluesun I had not thought of that. As I said, I admitted when I wrote that comment that I may not know what I was talking about. That has now been confirmed.
@Zuljaras And what is that reason? Bragging rights?
I don't like download only games. But I also really don't like physical only games. Give the gamer a choice to pick either. This is just a cash grab and I will not be buying these games because of this.
Ever.
@SwitchVogel In the SRG Discord, they said it's essentially to protect the limited nature of the release. They want the physical release to maintain parity with the digital release and no eventually become an outdated, lesser version of the game. It's not a "Selling" point to me either, but it's also not an issue - seeing as how they are funding the games themselves and devs know what they're getting into, I don't see a problem with releasing a feature complete game, and moving on to a sequel should they want to expand the game later.
I must be the only one who buys some of these limited releases and opens them. I wonder if open copies will become more valuable in the end as there will be fewer copies in that state that can actually be played 🤔
It’s a bit weird that people would make this complaint about a company literally called ‘Super Rare Games’
@Shadowthrone Because it is made only for a limited time period. I do not understand why it is so bad that it is physical only like in the old days. It is NOT like every game has the same treatment.
It is exactly the opposite nowadays.
@Zuljaras That didn't answer the question.
You're right, this isn't the 'old days'. This is the days of convenience and wider audiences. The physical is there for whomever wants it. It's still a limited release. Not releasing digital is just alienating some people, and limiting the amount of people who have access or will want to deal with scalpers, limited preorder windows and whatnot. There's no reason to do this. As is obvious by their quick back-pedaling on it.
Being upset that more people will have access to games is weird stance to take and I don't understand that. It's the same thing when people get upset a game isn't console exclusive. Who cares about that if you have it on the console you want in the format you want?
If you manage to get a physical copy of a limited release game, how is it bad that I bought it digitally and downloaded it? It doesn't decrease the limited availability of the physical. It doesn't affect you in any way whatsoever. So why is that bad?
It just seems like a selfish stance, like "I have it and you can't get it, so haha".
@Strafe It's only because they've been around for several years, but this month is the first time they've announced physical exclusivity.
@SwitchVogel Have you ever wanted to go back to the days before patches and DLC, where games were complete out-of-the-box? I'm not saying I'm yearning for that, but I have thought of it occasionally. There is a niche market for these at least. The way you're wording your argument, it seems like not allowing new content is 100% wrong, like it goes against some moral code.
If a dev wants to agree to release and move on, let them. Save the ideas for a sequel where they can get away with charging more than they would for DLC.
@SwitchVogel It’s purely because when you buy physical, it’s annoying that if they release dlc, now you only have a half finished game on the physical copy. Plus what you already mentioned, that digital allows them to ‘worry about bug fixes later’ and then not release a finished product. So in that respect, the positive aspect of what they are saying is that it’s complete (except for the fact that they reference the bug fix downloads anyway, so it might be just as bad). @Kilroy just posted this at the same time as you -Yes, digital is seen as a good thing these days, but in practice it has allowed for half finished / broken games to be released as testing does not need to be as thorough.
@FTL Yeah, that's unfortunately become the AAA unspoken (yet somehow accepted) model. Everyone does it, but AAA's earned the moniker for it, rightly. At least on Steam, devs can toss a game up on Early Access so people understand what they're getting into. Consoles have no such luxury and I've seen a game or two get released on consoles masquerading as 1.0's while on Steam, they're in EA.
As a collector of physical games, I do not approve of this.
I have zero problems with how Super Rare and Limited Run have marketed games till now, releasing physical editions of existing or upcoming e-shop releases. If they want to do physical-only games as a gimmick, I'm similarly OK with that, but they should also at least print a decent amount of copies to go on sale upon release, for those who miss the preorder window or heard the game was good after it hit the street.
An authentic retro shopping experience for those who never got to enjoy the "que sera, sera" method of video game shopping. 😅
I also feel there is something to be said for having a game complete-on-cart. What a rarity nowadays!
Ultimately though, I would have to be really impressed by a preview before ordering, as I buy games to play, not to collect.
@Shadowthrone I did not say it was bad I just say that I respected their decision!
And I do not care about bragging rights.
Also it is not scalping if you sell something after time because it is rare. I admit I never sell my stuff so I do not know but scalping is making it impossible for others to buy something WHEN the item is available for purchase.
And I repeat this is only for one game for one publisher not for EVERY game. I did not even buy that game
@Wilforce ok fair enough, it is just a tough world for content creators in the digital era to really get any security for their work. Heck even physical stuff gets copied too in this moral less world
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