It’s been a tumultuous month for Ys Net and Epic Games. There have been several updates following the announcement that Shenmue III would be going Epic Store exclusive, and that gamers who had backed the title on PC for the promise of Steam keys would not be receiving them. From the get-go, Ys Net and Deep Silver confirmed in no uncertain terms that refunds would not be granted to customers who felt that they had been lied to and no longer wanted to back the game.
Flash forward several weeks and it looks like either the Shenmue III team has buckled to public pressure or Epic Games has swooped in to do some damage control of its own. Tim Sweeney announced via Twitter that Epic will be funding the cost of all Kickstarter refunds in order to not affect the game’s funding. He also promised that should Epic acquire publishing to a game after they had already promised rewards on other stores, that they would work with those stores to ensure backers get what they originally paid for.
Epic is funding the cost of all Kickstarter refunds resulting from Shenmue III’s move to the Epic Games store, so that refunds won’t reduce Ys Net’s development funding. 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.
Source: Twitter
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