Epic Games has come under a lot of fire over recent months, with a lot of it stemming from the increasing number of exclusive games they are pulling in for their digital store. While the competition to Steam does motivate everyone involved to do better, many fans have been having none of it and shooting down the Epic Games Store any chance they get. That said, Shenmue III fans have especially been upset with Epic after it was revealed that the crowdfunded title was going to be an EGS exclusive for the first year, with those who were entitled to a Steam key not being offered a refund. That is, of course, until Epic recently disclosed that they will be covering refunds to those who don’t want the game on their store.
Developer Ys Net recently posted an update to their Kickstarter page for Shenmue III with a few options that those looking to get out of the Epic Games Store exclusivity will be able to take. While the devs had initially planned to release the game on Steam, that is no longer the case until after a year following its launch. Fans who pledged to receive the game on PC can now choose to get a physical copy that comes with the EGS key, just the EGS key, or they can switch to the PlayStation 4 version (physical or digital). It was also noted that if none of these options are preferred, refunds will be honored.
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That’s when Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney stepped in to inform everyone that Epic will cover all of the refunds so that Ys Net doesn’t have to take that hit. In addition to this, Sweeney also mentioned that the same will go for any future instances when crowdfunded games become exclusive to the Epic Games Store.
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.
— Tim Sweeney (@TimSweeneyEpic) July 2, 2019
Naturally, not everyone is happy about all of this, regardless of the reason. At the very least, something is being done about it by the Epic Games Store and Ys Net, so hopefully players are able to enjoy Shenmue III when it arrives on PC and PlayStation 4 on August 27th.
