https://medium.com/@info_68117/why-i-turned-down-exclusivity-deal-from-the-epic-store-developer-of-darq-7ee834ed0ac7

Normally I would've put this game in my wishlist and waited for it to go on sale like I do with almost every other game. But after reading his article, I went ahead and bought it immediately, because I think integrity should be rewarded.

Personally I don't even see how the topic could be considered a "debate". WHile I don't think exclusivity is, in itself, evil, I do think it's repulsive to try and get a dev to sign up for exclusivity AFTER they've just released their Steam/GOG release date trailer. I think that's skeevy as hell. Talk about a deal with the devil...

For me personally, it would've felt like an assault because I ONLY buy games on GOG and Twitch.io because I refuse to buy games that are tethered to DRM. I don't play online multiplayer, and I don't give a shit about achievements or rankings. I just want to play fun games I paid for without hassle, whenever I want, without some crap secretly running in the background, or randomly making me wait while it installs an update.

So, kudos to Unfold Games for not accepting the bribe and not yanking the rug out from under the feet of all the people who were patiently waiting for this to come out on the platforms it was announced for back in the day. Here's $20. :)

Love how this translates into overwhelmingly positive publicity and more sales as well.
Hopefully one of many more incidents of (indie) devs coming out and exposing this bullshit. As demonstrated it's not to the game's and the sales' detriment at all.

Thanks for not treating your audience like a bunch of ooblets.

Lets hope he has the brain never to make his company public to gather more money for a project because he will become hostage to investors and stockholders and he will be unable to look into long term future again. He will be forced to just make short term money even if it means everything will collapse.

Anyway i will support this dev as well and buy it at full price not just because he refused to sell out to Epic but also because he happily put a non DRM version on GOG from the get go..
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Pretty much. I would still have bought the game eventually, because it looked interesting, but the developer's attitude made me want to support him as soon as I could, so I bought the game inmediately.

Now, some people are going to be saying that this is all just a strategy to get himself good with the gamers. To which I answer... why would that be a bad thing? It's not only a savvy business strategy, but also way preferable to antagonizing them (like so many developers are lately doing). This man is being smart. He knows reputation is more valuable than a quick influx of cash, and I think that has to be commended.

this isn't my sort of game at all.

but i'm going to buy it full price in thanks for his perspective.

I agreed. Same here. Bought full price.

I also bought it at full price because of the integrity of the dev towards the gaming community, this is important.
I was about to buy Control today but I've decided to buy Darq along with 2 other indie games.
This game is awesome by the way.

Hey, DARQ dev here. Thank you so much for your support, this means the world to me!

Another purchase just for supporting GOG. Thanks Dev!
(Confession, I did buy it at discount.)

Yeah, that's why I bought it too. All along I've seen people getting mad at Epic while letting devs off the hook. I thought the dev should be taking the bulk of the blame for these deals. After all, Epic can make all the offers they want: it's up to the developers to accept the offers. Devs should have the integrity to say "no, I already promised release on other platforms, I'm not going to make a liar out of myself" but instead they keep selling out. This is a scumbag move, especially from the ones who were on Kickstarter or a similar site collecting funds based on the promise of versions for Steam, GOG, or other platforms.

This developer did have that integrity, so that's a purchase from me. (bought it when I first heard the news, only getting around to playing it now)

And here's another who will buy the game. :)