Good news, everyone: Carmageddon, the classic and highly violent crash racing series, is finally back. Its newest game, Reincarnation, is heading to Steam Early Access next year. However, not all fans are happy.
In an update to the game’s Kickstarter project, which concluded last year, developer Stainless Games announced that the Early Access version of Carmageddon: Reincarnation would be launching on Steam in Q1 2014. However, Stainless also revealed that backers who pledged for a copy of the game would get access to a so-called “standard package bundle.” The full press release, posted on the game’s website, offers further clarification on what that means:
Once the Early Access programme launches, players will have the option to buy the game content at a variety of tiered prices, starting with the standard game package and leading up to a full package bundle that will include all DLC and all future released material at an all-inclusive price.
The update also mentioned a giveaway, where anyone who would contact the developers on Twitter would be entered in a contest to win one of 99 full package bundle codes.
Immediately, comments began appearing under the update bemoaning the existence of paid DLC — a topic not discussed in any of the previous updates. Others noted with frustration that Stainless Games would start a Twitter-based competition for free full bundle codes while handing their own backers (including those that pledged over $US50) bare-bones copies of the game.
Projects not ending up as they were advertised is one of the inherent risks of Kickstarter; still, it would be a shame to see Carmageddon’s return get overshadowed by unsatisfactory pre-order deals. In any case, Kotaku will be keeping an eye on the game and will update this post in case there’s news.
UPDATE: Jason Garber of Stainless Games contacted Kotaku with the following statement, which was also published in the Kickstarter update’s comment section:
Simply put, everyone who pledged on Kickstarter will get the complete game. Kickstarter Backers will get the Early Access content, plus all subsequent updates that go together to make up the complete game. The “complete game” is what it says — the full-featured game as originally described, with multiple environments, cars, peds and events.
It’s common practice to offer DLC for games — hell, we did the equivalent back in 1998 when we released The Splat Pack for Carmageddon. DLC is the additional content we offer after the game is finished and complete because we want to keep the game fresh and new for our players long after its release. The $US625k raised by our Kickstarter fans has contributed to development of the complete game. These Kickstarter funds are not being used to fund DLC development.
We hope that fans of the game will be excited to expand their game with more stuff from us here at Stainless, as well as the CarMODgeddon content that will be coming from the community as well.
The Dawn of Early Access [Kickstarter]
Comments
14 responses to “Backers Livid Over Carmageddon Kickstarter [Update]”
Well as long as the Kickstarter fund arent being used to make the DLC i dont see an issue.
Although if the DLC comes out at the same time as the game, thats a bit iffy.
Business as usual.
Kotaku’s a bit late on picking this up. Stainless have already flipped on the DLC issue; Kickstarter Backers will now receive the full game and all DLC as a part of their reward.
All DLC is included for Kickstarter bakers now. Honestly, I think they have given us more than we deserve. I would’ve happily paid for DLC made afterwards. New product means new payment. That’s only fair.
As a backer of this project, let me offer the following statement:
“Meh”
A kickstarter backing is not a pre-order. It is not a right to get all content for that IP for the rest of time for free.
It is money offered up in good will to help achieve something that was otherwise unachievable.
It is likely that offering these tiers in early access, that money (plus profits once the game releases) will fund the DLC. I have no issues with this.
Edit: So I see we get the DLC now. I probably should read my emails more often.
This is, as discussed at length in previous threads, completely wrong.
When you back a project the entity running the project is legally obliged to deliver what they promise. Not to randomly do whatever they want with the money, not to deliver something else, but to deliver what you have paid for.
This is made clear in the Kickstarter terms and conditions and is equally obvious as a matter of general law.
They have every intention of delivering a finished product, as described. DLC is not included in that. DLC is a new, complimentary product.
I’ll happily take their offer of free DLC. The whole team are really pretty awesome to their backers. But they are doing it because they are awesome, not because we deserve free DLC.
I probably could have phrased that better, but as far as I am concerned, they are delivering on that legal obligation.
I was driving more towards the whole ‘good will’ thing – if people want to pre-order, why don’t they wait until there is an actual product and order it then? If a company is looking towards further revenue streams thanks to the platform you helped them establish, shouldn’t that be a good thing, instead of people screaming for more more more because they were part of the process?
I just don’t understand the mentality sometimes.
And that there is the problem. The mentality of its a preorder. It’s not.
I kind of wish that they didn’t give copies if the game to backers and offered other incentives to avoid this but then no one would actually back things. It’s an imperfect model but no idea how you’d fix it.
That’d be a pretty ballsy move. Something like, “We’re looking for backers – people to donate to the funding. This is not a preorder, things might come up which a publisher would be able to cover by writing a cheque, but which Kickstarter cannot.”
I think established dev groups could be able to get something like that to fly by instead of rewarding backers with promises, reward them with keys/copies of their existing games. Different bundles for different tiers.
You’d in no way raise anywhere near as much money, I think.
I think kickstarter will become far more useful when people realise it’s not a bloody online store.
it’s an investment. Sometimes you’ll help a company produce something, sometimes they’ll fail, sometimes they’ll be delayed, sometimes they’ll get more funding from other sources and change their plan a bit.
This happens all the time. Don’t like it? Don’t back a “project”. Go to a shop instead.
People need to see that they are paying for a “project or an idea” not a “product”.
any word on console version?
Coming to a Steam Machine near you soon :o)
sony or MS I mean
“… it would be a shame to see Carmageddon’s return …” Yes, yes it would be. The original game was pretty shit in gameplay and I think there maybe too many Nostalgia Goggles being worn for this “rebirth”