Yep. Who would have guessed that tasking oneself with recreating/licencing old NES/console games to be put onto the PC was going to be a logistical/licencing nightmare, especially when the code to most old games are lost to the mists of time?

Now I was doubtful of the project from the very start. Straight licencing an old NES game for release is hard when say, a company is long dead, or one or more parties refuse to agree.

Remaking/creating something like an old NES game is not something you can do between the time GamePump was announced and the time of release for the first game. Not to mention, unless you put a ridiculous amount of effort into it, while skilfully dodging lawyers, your result at best is going to be something almost, but not quite entirely unlike tea, as the words of Douglas Adams went.

While not a bad thing, as Axiom Verge has proven by showing Metroid as it's roots but being thematically and highly atmospherically different. With Metroid leaning more on organic over tech. The thing is, Axiom verge won't scratch the same itch Super Metroid would.

...Now other people should have been doubtful of this from the start, because Robert Bowling, who is behind several failed projects was the mastermind behind this. He's also probably the reason why Humble Bundle started to suck for a while before they recently returned to form, as he was a VP there for a while.

If it turns out the "exclusive to other console" is just a homebrew game like Halloween 85, that's not so much an exclusive as much as was "developed for a platform specifically.".

Had to read up on what Gamepump is to begin with (would it have been so hard to provide any sort of link or at least briefly explain what Gamepump was supposed to be? :P).

For others wondering:
Gamepump homepage
Announcement of abandoning a subscription model

Anyway, who cares? They only abandoned the shitty payment model but want to continue doing the only thing that actually did matter: bringing games exclusive to other systems to PC. If they will be able to do that: great! Otherwise: no loss.

Not surprised in the least... it's sad as it would have been nice if it could have succeeded... but I think if it could be done, then it would have been already.

At least they're refunding people rather than just doing a runner with the money...

At least they are refunding the subscribers and will give them the two "bonus games" for free.

But if they'r refunding, how is the other half of the alleged venture supposed to be funded?

While reading this part from original post:

"While not a bad thing, as Axiom Verge has proven by showing Metroid as it's roots but being thematically and highly atmospherically different. With Metroid leaning more on organic over tech. The thing is, Axiom verge won't scratch the same itch Super Metroid would."

a thought occurred to me in a form of question at first. "Why the new Axiom Verge would not peak as Super Metroid did?" Holy idea in my head is that because of timing, historical change and cultural change of both people and technology. I understand it it like this: Super Metroid came out when computers in whatever manner where also a new thing. That's your double scratch of interest. Nowadays technology is everywhere around you and simply recreating an old game will never peak same interest because you know all the high-end capabilities of the new tech, you are used to it. And game alone is too weak to make the new, smart you too much interested.

Plus, all the sentimental memories of Super Metroid, plus some (if any) forgotten or misshaped details from the past and constant comparison of the new product to the how good the old was. No, recreation will never ever work up to the same point. Conclusion: company was doomed from beginning.

Well - he mentiones GOG as one of the publishing platforms..We shall see.

Apologies if I've missed it somewhere obvious, but what are the two games that subscribers are getting for free?

Good on them for at least trying.

EDIT: I don't know how they're funding it, but it was never through subscription money:

"It was important to us that we achieved this without using any subscriber money, so that we could ensure that you all received your full payment back if satisfaction was not guaranteed."

deleted

What was the subscription money going to, then?

No idea. Profit?

That's the idiotic part. Rather than entice people with known titles, they're using some dumb mystery system to probably cover for issues of either quality or inability to secure a title.

One of them will be LIT, the other one is still a mystery.