The unexpected release of classic PC games by Electronic Arts (EA) onto Steam, a digital distribution platform, has caused hurt to Stumbling Cat, the developer behind indie adventure crafting game Potions: A Curious Tale. Last week, EA released over a dozen of its classic titles on Steam, which included Populous, Dungeon Keeper, Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri and The Saboteur. This caused several of the games to quickly upload onto Steam’s New & Trending chart, while Potions: A Curious Tale moved down. The seven Command & Conquer games released by EA charted higher than Stumbling Cat’s game, as they could only be purchased as a package.
Renee Gittens, the creative director of Stumbling Cat, revealed that her indie game that she had worked on for ten years was immediately bumped off by the EA releases. All the built-up marketing and momentum was destroyed in an instant. Gittens shared an image of the 11 EA titles, which ranked ahead of Potions: A Curious Tale on Steam’s New & Trending Chart, and shared a statement after her tweet became widespread. She said that the New & Trending list is ordered by release date and not by popularity. However, there needs to be a base level of good reviews and popularity to feature on it, and she pushed hard to get there.
According to Gittens, a game featured on the New & Trending front page gets millions of impressions, thousands of wishlists, and hundreds to thousands of sales a day, and losing out on that is a big deal for an indie developer like her. She was blindsided and devastated by the EA releases, although she did not believe that EA was trying to get her. For Gittens, this was just a case of bad luck and horrible timing. It was noticed that Warner Bros. is delisting several game titles that have been developed for Adult Swim Games. This move followed after the cancellation of Coyote Vs. Acme and Batgirl
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