Developers of Failed Military Shooter Offer Full Refunds to All Backers
The developers of Battalion 1944 have decided to compensate players for the failure of their game and will return money to those who backed the project on Kickstarter.
Online shooter Battalion 1944 turned out to be a failure. Initially, nothing foreshadowed it.
- Funds for this project were raised on Kickstarter in 2016 (the devs managed to beat the minimum goal three times).
- The project also scored a good launch in early access, setting an activity record of nearly 17,000 concurrent players.
- After that, however, things only got worse - the game began to lose users, and the developers decided to cancel the planned console versions. Eventually, they also ended the development of the PC version.
Unexpected twist
For most games, this is where the project's story would have ended, but the developers responsible for Battalion 1944 showed a commendable attitude. They announced that they will return the money to all players who supported Battalion 1944 on Kickstarter. This happened because the developers did not deliver the promised physical products or console versions.
- Those interested have until August 11, to fill out a form with the information the devs need to make a refund.
- Such an action was made possible by the fact that the team responsible for Battalion 1944, Bulkhead Interactive, was acquired by Splash Damage. When the head of the latter company found out that the devs were still collecting funds to refund players from Kickstarter, they decided to help them do so.
- The move by the developers was met with a very good response. It also caused quite a surprise, as such refunds are very rare. Most often, when a funded project on Kickstarter fails, players have no hope of getting their money back.
Not everyone likes it
Some developers from other teams, however, are not happy about this turn of events.
- Animator Ryan Duffin, who worked, among others, on the Battlefield series, believes that Bulkhead Interactive's action is very damaging, as it creates an expectation that in the future devs of other kickstarter failures will also return money to the players.
- The head of Bulkhead Interactive, Joe Brammer, commented on Duffin's tweet, explaining that it's all about the studio's ethos. The developers promised players something they were unable to deliver, and so they decided to make amends to those who backed them on Kickstarter.
As Brammer stated:
"What is important to us is what we have publicly committed to our players. We are gamers ourselves, and that is how we would like to be treated. (...) We are not about money here, but about ethos."
Finally, it is worth mentioning that before abandoning the game, the developers turned it into a F2P game titled Battalion Legacy. Its servers are still running.
