Not sure about anything on this, but definitely sounds bad. That GOG pulled it is kind of an ominous sign.

Yes, that's the proper consumer response to such activities. But again, I'm afraid you and I are in the minority on how we respond to such things. I wish it weren't so, but I'm afraid it is.

DRM shouldn't even be where it's at today, much less where it's likely heading. Releasing unfinished buggy games should NEVER HAVE BEEN supported, but now it's the norm, where the paying public willingly pays to become final BETA testers and then patches come out.

But that's where we're at, and if this thread lives long enough my point will be proven by responses to this very comment.

Count me to those that could not find anywhere any mention that this Special Edition includes any bug fixes. The cynic in me fears that it may but it's not explicitly spelled out to avoid a much bigger uproar.
Frankly, I don't know which case is worse:

- 1. If it does not include bug fixes, then Daedalic is slapping a few extras into the existing version and calls it a "Special Edition" in order to double the price of a four years old game. In GOG's case, this "new" version seems even less worth the asked price (even the time-limited upgrade for owners of the old version) if those achievements are Steam exclusives as it seems that the audio commentary will be the only new content (as the old version already contained a good number of extras).
It's insulting to consumers that the devs invested time and resources to make a special edition in order to cash in when the actual game suffers from bugs that the devs never bothered to fix in the good four years this game is out.

- 2. If it does include bug fixes, then the actual "special" aspect of this version is that it'll (hopefully) be bug free. In this case, it's astonishing, to say the least, that owners of the old version are actually asked to pay extra for bug fixes, regardless of the price tag.
It's a bad sign when patches start getting charged separately or consumers are expected to buy the same game twice just to have a bug-free working copy.

I also have to wonder why the non-special edition was pulled from both GOG and Steam - are they this confident that the new version will sell so well that they don't need any revenue that may still come from the old one? The cynic in me suspects that it might be an attempt to purge all the comments and reviews about the unfixed bugs of the game.

Which ever the case, at the moment I can only say this - and then they wonder why the # of their Facebook likes don't match that of their sales?


I see you've (finally) run out of excuses... ;-P


Let me see if I understand you correctly.
- Daedalic spent time, resources and money and made a game outside the genre they're known for.
- The game doesn't sell well, or at least not as well as expected.
- To get themselves out of this predicament, they decide that the best course of action is to try to recuperate their losses out of the pockets of their adventure games' fans by pumping up the prices of their older, well-known and well-received games.
- You think this is a perfectly fine way for a company to treat their long time customers.

Is this what you're saying? Or did I miss(understand) something?

Chances are, "long-time customers" already bought the whispered world. I cant see this as poor treatment of their loyal fan base, when its something theyr introducing to get the series some pres and new players in preparation for the sequel. I dont feel cheated that i'm not getting a commentary for free. I might feel differently if it was about bugs, but the facts on that one dont seem too clear.
im not linking them, its the same logic. There is no connection between making a special edition commentary, and then consequently making an "ending patch". Speculating that the publisher will then think they can get away with more, is just like speculating that politicians will think they can get away with more after passing one law. Its just speculation.

How many of you have actually attempted communicating with Daedalic about this? Some users on the steamgifts forums are saying that Daedalic has replied to emails saying "The upgrade will be for free if you already bought the game on Steam, GOG, or similar shops. These new information will be spread as soon as we can and hopefully it will reach everyone who is currently disappointed by the 'old' news." Apparently there should be an official statement made tomorrow.

You're supposed to talk and then grab the torches and pitchforks if talking doesn't work. Instead, most of you are grabbing the pitchforks immediately and going for some kind of flaming blood orgy.

In your previous post (that I quoted) you said something different, so if what you meant is what you said now, then I suppose that I did misunderstand your initial wording.


With respect, this is called damage control.

It's a shame. A commentary, achievements support, 5€.
And the game is broken, AND without the latesta patch (so you can get stucked by savegame corruption and invisible items).

Let me check... nope, I still didn't get any response for my email. We will see...

But OK, let's assume that they will give this upgrade for free, that will surely address one of my concerns but the second will remain - doubling a price for a five years old game is not a cool move. Audio commentary, new tutorial and achievements for 10$? That's a rip-off... especially because you will (most probably) not be allowed to choose whether you want to buy the game alone (for 10$) or pay extra and get this new content (I can imagine that some people may really want it)

IF they make it so (that is release this new staff as a some sort of DLC) then I will assume that it was mistake that they acknowledged and tried to fix it. That would be cool, they can count on my full support if that's the case.

The "old" news is five days old, where they announced that previous owners would in fact be charged.

And maybe the reason for this "new" news is because folks did start reaching for the torches and pitchforks, but instead you think they just changed their mind in five days because... why?

With respect, damage control can be achieved through floods of emails and not just through angry mob tactics.
Not saying it isn't because of angry customers. I'm saying that the same results can possibly be achieved without going to the far extremes right away.

You're outside of my target audience since you actually sent an email. But yeah, the rest of that is still shitty. Hopefully they'll change their minds about that,as well.
Edit: The fuck, internet? Tripling my post like that isn't cool.

What exactly do you mean by "the far extremes"? Because the strongest response I've seen in this thread is a boycott of Daedalic games, that hardly qualify as "extreme". Moreover, let me emphasize once again: my reaction is not because of the current issue but because similar situation occurs over and over again. I just have enough of this.
Yeah, that was weird ;P

I am unpleased by this, like many others.

But I'll take carefully the reasons why Daedalic could have chosen to make this.
I have already seen some cases where the developer or the publisher (or both) made unavailable the basic version of a game, brought a advanced version at a higher price and with a fair price for upgrade for the owners of the basic version. I've seen that in some niche genres games. I won't say it's common, but it's not really rare. And sometimes I've seen advanced versions available without any possibility to upgrade.

But, here, Daedalic seems to be a very popular studio at current times (yes, indeed, some of their moves made them very unpopular...). I have read recently some interviews explaining how they grew from a very indie developer 5 years ago to a 100+ studio now. And what I've seen too, is that their games are particulary praised when sales come.

So why are they doing that?
Is it something similar to DLCs but with an actual "considered-as-finished" game?
Are the sales great in number but insufficent in money?

If it's the first one, wouldn't we be happy if we hate DLCs or could accept them either?
If it's the secund one, what should we think about sales concerning bigger-than-indies-and-smaller-than-big-corps developers and publishers?

It could just be a greedy move. It could be a nicer move actually depending of the content.

I don't know. But there are many questions coming from this move and some previous ones, from Daedalic and others.

Don't you think that classifying criticism of a company's decision expressed in a public forum under "angry mob tactics" is a tad exaggerated?

And as OldFatGuy, do you really think they had a change of heart, just like that, out of nowhere?
It's the public criticism that led them to change their decision in a (last minute) attempt to control the damage done to their image. Are you sure that private emails would have the same result? I somehow doubt it.

Eitherway, as someone that already owns the game, I care about potential bug fixes, as for new buyers I still think that the additional content doesn't exactly justify doubling the price.
Not to mention that this coming right after the unbundling of the Edna & Harvey games and charging $14.99 for the first game smells like an ill-conceived pattern on Daedalic's side.

Not sure if it's posted yet, but they're unofficially going to give The Whispered World Special Edition for free to owners of the old version. They should be making an official announcement tomorrow. Some guy contacted their support and got a response, they posted it on Steamgifts:

http://www.steamgifts.com/forum/zHgwf/broken-game-the-whispered-world-removed-from-steam-but-gets-rerelease-as-special-edition/page/1#26632195