I suspect this is just the first of many bundles that sprung up after Humble Bundle became popular to fade away.

to be honest their launch was drowned in controversy from the start , they lasted as long as they could

Hmm, I don't know what to think about this. On the one hand the Depth Hunter dev definitely seems out of order. On the other hand, I remember there being something about GATT being linked to a dodgy Steam key reseller during their first bundle.

Let's wait and see what Depth Hunter dev will have to say on this.

I think, both sides of this conflict had made a large number of wrong decisions, but the post from GATT is clearly a preemptive strike. This will get even uglier very quickly.

it's sad that they are forced to close down shop, but their blog post-mortem article seems to be written in a hurry or not proof-read because I have trouble understanding many of their points.

I get that they claim that Biart broke their contract and went in the offence demanding money from the sales.

I particularly don't get the part about "two months after the bundle has concluded". Unless my english don't help me (not my native language), this does not cover them for what they were aiming for (ie. having a game exclusive to their bundle for two months after the bundle had begun), or what I understand as their aim. Anyway, I guess it's up to their lawyers now to clear things up between them.

Biart response. https://www.facebook.com/BiartHQ/posts/541899419162963

In sum, they're planning to revoke the keys from the IFK but they will send new, clean keys to anyone who requests it, and they encourage users to demand a refund from the IFK. They also will offer a discount on Depth Hunter 2 to anyone impacted as an apology.

My opinion on the IFK is well known, and having been on the receiving end of their horrid PR spin bullshit I really encourage people to not leap to conclusions immediately.

I've found Biart to be a bit of a weird outfit, to be honest.

They had the gall to implement their own system of faulty online DRM in the game without mentioning this fact to buyers ANYWHERE on their website. Their website seems to blow their own importance out of all proportion, and yet has nothing in the way of contact details save for a spartan email form. The address they specify on investment websites in Houston, Texas is some kind of non-descript garage and is shared by a number of outfits, including scammers.

Personally, I'm more inclined to believe IFK's side of the story. That being said, the IFK doesn't come across as being particularly kosher either.

Revoking the keys and offering to replace them is one of the most ridiculous bullshit things I've ever heard of. There's basically no point in doing it at all, apart from being petty.

They both seem like dodgy bastards to me.

Also it should be noted that Turba, the game that was in much the same situation, donated the keys for free after they realized they breached the contract. Those keys, instead of being sold, were given out on Steam Gifts to promote the bundle and to boost this Steam Gifts account which was then used to enter giveaways with high minimum contributor requirements (since technically they had "donated" $138,888 in prizes).

I'm not surprised Biart wasn't feeling as charitable as the Turba devs.

Indeed. It has the whiff of an address-collecting scam somehow. I think Biart's aim here is to gather as many email addresses as possible that it can use to market its other products.

There seems to be a lot of drama in this thread here: http://www.reddit.com/r/Gamebundles/comments/13vwgn/the_end_of_indiefacekick_bundles_ifk_the_end/

Ok, that's undeniably dodgy.

Presumably the IFK still holds a percentage of unsold codes (they didn't sell 10,000 copies, which is what they ordered the devs to originally supply) so the developer doesn't want them to use said codes in another Steamgifts thing or something. It was Desura, and I don't even think you can revoke a Desura code. I assume this was meant as any unredeemed codes would be rendered void, but if you haven't redeemed your code you can get a new one.

That's the way I took it, anyway. Obviously I'm pretty biased here, because I really do despise the IFK. I do think Biart has done some undeniably shitty behaviour, but I don't believe that it was entirely unprovoked.

Desura codes can't be revoked, but Biart employs an internal DRM system in Depth Hunter that they can revoke keys for. Basically, anyone who bought their copy from IFK will suddenly find that they can no longer activate their game from the title screen and probably won't know any better unless they check the IFK website.

Thankfully, I bought mine from Groupees.