Instead of paying a lawyer they should've paid an accountant (I don't know if they need really that for a small studio) and self publish the game. This way they only had to split the money with Valve. Pay Valve, pay taxes, pay publisher, pay lawyer, pay...

Sadly Valkyrie is dead anyway, and the rights of Septerra Core get dusty in the hands of Zuxxes(sp?)/Topware as far I know, without making games in the franchise or allowing it to be sold to someone else. So as you see I am not supporting them, I just say directly contacting dev teams to share your opinion on this is more productive than silently boycotting a publisher and declaring it on GOG.

He said "MAJOR" gaming sites. The story sounds like it sucks, but I won't give a vile site like Gamasutra clicks.

Perhaps. But it's a lot easier and it still gives me a fuzzy feeling. In any case, I referred to current games rather than back catalog, lots of things going on with those. And it seems Topware is going belly up anyway, so nothing really matters.

Not a very good development. Bosses pay themselves bonuses, company is left insolvent, and only the secured creditors get some payment.

If these, or any, scammed developers have any shot, its to stake their claim right now, in the bankruptcy proceedings and sell-off. How that works in DE is unclear to me, but it should be possible, hopefully not too prohibitively expensive. If those properties are sold off, even illegaly, the cost to litigate their restoration would probably be prohibitive.

you do realise that boycotts like this hurts developers like Reality Pump much more than the publisher? You are also punishing Reality Pump here for Topware's actions.
Gamasutra is a site for game DEVELOPERS. It is the perfect place to put up information like this, you know, for other developers to take in account as a warning?

If you can suggest a better way for me to punish Topware other than not buying products they release, I will be happy to take it on board. :)

They employ some rather nasty racist people like Leigh Alexander, that's enough for me to not give them my views or clicks.

Given that Topware has filed for bankruptcy, I wonder if this is a moot point.

not beyond spreading information so no other developer sign up with them, not. And feel free to do campaigns like this, but be aware of who you are really hurting also. it is just a bit strange if you are doing this in sympathy that a developer studio is in problem, by helping to make sure another will be?
fair enough, but then it is a double reason not to boycott Ravens Cry, as the IP will either revert back to Reality Pump or picked up by someone else. Either way the studio is in problem, and hindering sales of their latest game will only make it worse.

Why am I not surpised? It's the same familiar story. A company gets a good foothold, then gets greedy, then starts scamming and then goes bankrupt. And I'm not talking only about gaming companies....

The article seemed pretty genuine and flow of events (Steam cancellation, litigations) check out.

It's also on their official blog so it's not just some shmo who impersonated them.

And finally, the timeline on their blog (been talking about this for over a year) indicate that this isn't a knee-jerk last minute idea.

I'd dub this one very likely.

In the short term, it sucks for the couple of devs already with them (hope they manage to jump ship), but in the long term, it's more beneficial to send a clear message that this sort of crap won't fly, especially given that the law seems rather complacent and lax to take action (wouldn't be the first time).

Simply put, I want not to give these guys any money to keep their scam operations up more than I want to support the few devs already in their webs. When you think about it, it's a kindness to future devs who might get caught in this cesspool.

Only once they are dead and buried.

I'm of that mindset also, but it's partly because I'm paranoid and partly because I'm an idiot as far as marketing goes.

When your product is good and you are an unknown, good marketing really pays off. Simply put, it's better to get 70% of a million copies sold and 100% of 10k copies sold.

Ahh, more specifically: I was wondering if Reality Pump will see proceeds from present sales before that money evaporates along with Topware.

That is, would it benefit Reality Pump if interested buyers were to wait until Topware is properly dead? I don't know. Maybe I should be addressing the question to Spinorial. He seems savvy on the subject.

Locally i've heard a long time company/store had to close because of embezzlement from the upper levels. They could probably have earned 10x the amount in normal wages if they didn't cut the throat of who they worked for to take away needed funds to keep the company afloat....

Kinda sad. I thought the prices were a little high myself, but the products were good.