Dark and Darker Creators' Controversial Decision Stems From Promise to Fans. Devs Aware That Free Version of the Game Needs Improvement
The developers of Dark and Darker provided the main reason for the controversial release of the game in a free-to-play model. At the same time, the developers announced the easing of restrictions on the free version of the dungeon crawler.
The popular dungeon crawler, which recently became available again on Steam, didn't fully succeed in its comeback. The item in question is, of course, Dark and Darker, garnering harsh reviews from users of Valve's platform because of the game's paid content "for free."
In reaction to unfavorable reviews, the devs decided to talk more about the reasons for their decision and slightly "relax" the blocks in the free version of the game. Let's remind that the biggest controversy was caused by the free-to-play model proposed by Ironmace studio. Players encounter many limitations in this "freebie" - among them are restrictions on gathering loot.
As the devs of the RPG point out, they made a promise to players who bought and played the game Dark and Darker via Blacksmith (the platform created by Ironmace to distribute their title) that they will try to do everything to prevent fans from paying for an indie title again if it hits major digital stores.
[...] However, due to the large number of previous customers on Blacksmith, it was not feasible nor fair to our platform partners for us to distribute thousands of keys to Blacksmith customers for free (Steam and EGS keys) [...]. The solution to overcome the technical, logistical, and contractual hurdles we faced was to transition to a Free to Play model which would allow our current customers to naturally transition to a partner platform of their choice without the use of any abusable keys -- we read in the Ironmace message.
It should be noted that today the developers have released a new hotfix, in which they have decided to test, among other things, the removal of loot restrictions on normal difficulty. Perhaps the next step for devs will be to introduce further solutions to reduce the negative impressions of the controversial F2P.
Dark and Darker is still in early access and it's unknown how long it will be available there. The game will likely become paid on the official release date, which should resolve the issues caused by the devs' publishing decisions.
