From Daedelic's own website description: "Additionally to the original game, this new edition will include exclusive contents, such as audio comments, featuring the games’ authors Jan ‘Poki’ Mueller-Michaelis and Marco Huellen, a completely overhauled tutorial as well as new achievements."

So, why are people screaming about this being a "patch" you must pay for?

It sounds to me like they are releasing a special edition and charging people for it. I never pay for such things, but it also sounds like I'm not being forced to.

So, what's the problem exactly?

piwer explained it here: http://www.gog.com/forum/general/owners_of_the_whispered_world_will_have_to_pay_to_get_a_patch_steam/post13

Many people had to download save files to get pass through a game breaking bug that has never been fixed. The special edition will probably has it fixed but you have to pay for it. Don't you think it's pretty major problem?

EDIT by the way Daedalic is known for not fixing their bugs. In Edna & Harvey: The Breakout there is a game-breaking bug with arranging a menu. However, it exist only in English version so you can finish the game by temporarily changing the language to German and back to English after this puzzle. And that's what they were officially suggesting to everybody who complained about it! (Perhaps the bug is fixed now, but it was like that for a looong time)

because apparently the game is very broken (i never had problems with it) and people will have to pay for those updates/fixes too on top of a commentary which most seem trivial at $5 which would increase after 3 months.
that is if those bugs will be fixed even.

You are right, I also think that they put the price of their games too high to sell easily.
It is "okay" (read: the norm) to charge a console owner $60/£50 for a new game as they have become accustom to it. Yet on the PC we have become accustom to cheaper priced games. I will happily spend £15 for a game I really want to play, I have done it a few times, but knowing it will drop in price (often before I even get around to playing it) does not fill me with confidence to spend that much.

I bought all of the Desponia games at $10 a pop and was happy as I really enjoyed each one (two being the weakest), but I just feel that spending $20 on a single game is a little too much most of the time. I know that Daedalic price their games at a level they feel is more appropriate for their market, but the thing is, squeezing those who enjoy puzzle games because there are maybe not so many is counter intuitive to making the game accessible in price so people who might just have a passing interest take a look.
I have a few side scrolling mashem-ups because they looked like a bit of fun, but I always go back to FPSes, Dungeons and Dragons and Point and Click games because they are where my main interest in gaming happens to be.

Look at how CD Projekt handled the re-release of The Witcher Enhanced Edition five or six years ago. They were a small company too back then.

The game is actually buggy as all get out. Daedalic's solution when I contacted them? Several save games for Chapter 2 so when I literally get stuck on certain screens and can't move the main character, I can then load up a save game that gets me past the buggy screen. (yeah, nice solve - much cheaper than debugging the code and fixing the broken game). But now I hear "Hey, it's got new, special stuff and oh, you get to pay us again at this "special, reduced price!".

Plus, there is no guarantee that this "special" edition is actually fixed... Gee, should I pay more money to actually get to play a game I already paid for?

~sigh for sheer, utter stupidity and greed~

I take it that the bugs were so huge that they actually had to invest some serious man-hours to patch them out, now obviously they want to cover this loss. Can't say I blame them, although this is a bit dickish on their part.

That's terrible and seems so shady.

The developers of Guacamelee are doing something similar - by releasing an upgraded version of the game only on systems the orignal wasn't released on. They're claiming it's an attempt to get owners who haven't experienced the game to be able to enjoy it, but it actually seems like an attempt to get double dips and avoid discounts for previous owners.

more info here:
http://www.gog.com/forum/guacamelee_gold_edition/super_turbo_championship_edition_not_coming_to_pc

+1

I also bought most of their games and enjoy them, but will no longer give my money to them until they change their attitude to their costumers.

Funny this topic is mentioned - Viva Media handled the publishing of this game in North America a long time ago and I have the disk version of this game (does not contain DRM) I wonder what the publishing rights online are now?

What will the patch contain ? If it's something substantial, like an expansion, that they're just calling "patch", then it might not be a problem . If not...

I have a drm-free copy that is broken. The Steam version I own won't even run at all. So yeah, two broken versions :-(

Should I pay for a third version with no guarantee that it will actually work? Something about fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me... Three times is the definition of insanity.

Business wise it's a good move. It has some of the appeal of a small exclusivity and it doesn't sound like someone who played the initial release is targeted to buy it.

To be fair, Guacamalee doesn't have unresolved big bugs afaik, and you shouldn't expect people to deliver additional content for free, but when they do take it as a really nice gesture (I don't know if this is your issue).

Thanks for the clarification. This really is a shmit move :(

The gist of it is that it adds Steam achievements, cards, (already free) soundtrack, and a commentary track according to what I read in the Steam forums. Still, it's being handled pretty poorly. They pulled the original game so there is no telling if the original users are SOL if there are bugfixes.

Luckily I didn't care that much of the game, so they can keep their patch. But I do get the sting, as I did pay for the updated version of Deus Ex. Though in that case the price tag was reduced as I owned both the original game and the DLC. But still, I'd preferred to have gotten that for free.

And as I recall there was similar thing done with Frogware Holmes games as well, when they released the special versions of the Awakening, and I think of some other first person Holmes game, where you had the 3rd person mode added (which really didn't make the games any better, as they worked better on first person mode IMO).