Klei Entertainment hit the restart button on Griftlands, confirmed to come to Linux but Epic Store first

I used to hold great respect for Klei's work, but they've become very careless. Abandoned GOG users, leaving them with outdated games without a good reason and now this. They might as well sell themselves to Microsoft or some other big company next.

Oh, Epic store exlusive? Seems to me Steam page is ready for ignore.

Welp, time to remove Klei from my list of favorite developers :(

Wait, next year it will be in early access on Steam? Then I don't see what's the problem with being on Epic store before. It will not even be finished, when launching on Steam. Calm down guys and let the Epic-Store-guys do the beta testing ;)

I almost never buy EA games anyway, so doing a one year stint on Epic first - no worries. I'll wait. Klei have produced some incredibly fine games over the years, definitely have my loyalty (to a degree).

I wonder what's happened to The Floor is Lava, or Hot Lava, or whatever their first-person parkour game was called. I'd have though it was better fodder for Epic Store than Griftlands!


Last edited by scaine on 10 June 2019 at 9:00 pm UTC

You do Epic exclusive, I add it to ignore list. Easy as that. There goes the money you could heave got by me.

Getting pretty bloody sick of this trend...

Announcing hot new game #3!

Woo! Cool! *gets wallet ready*

Epic store exclusive!

*closes wallet quietly*

Oh cool, Klei has a new game coming out next year! :P

Another studio to go on my blacklist.

Wait, next year it will be in early access on Steam? Then I don't see what's the problem with being on Epic store before. It will not even be finished, when launching on Steam. Calm down guys and let the Epic-Store-guys do the beta testing ;)

In cases like this, I don't mind too much. We get a more complete game, with confirmed Linux support from a developer with a good history of supporting us.

...and bear in mind that Klei didn't support Linux for about 2 years with Oxygen Not Included when it first launched in EA. This Epic deal is utterly meaningless for us. We'll get much the same support and experience as we always get from them.

I despise the Epic Store and everything it represents, but I can't extend that derision to Klei over this.

That was so confusing. I read it as "We will be supporting PC (Win,Mac,Lin) during Alpha and Early Access. We will be adding OSX and Linux support in the future." and was lost for a second as to what the difference in supporting Linux during alpha and later was and how that explained the Epic store.
Anyway, guess we'll see in a year+ if this is worth paying attention to.

ask them if they can make it only epic exclusive for epic supported platforms

i hope some publisher will do this in the future
win and osx on epic and linux on gog and steam

I'm slightly disappointed, as I would have totally bought this when it first went EA. But, Klei has enough goodwill saved up from my perspective, I'm not too bothered by this (and I can totally understand small(er) devs needing the upfront cash influx from something like an epic store exclusive. The situation sucks, but I put a lot more of the blame on Epic for these exclusives than small devs for taking the cash).

And, I have too much of an unplayed game backlog to care too much about waiting a bit longer for another game :P

Edit* clarity


Last edited by Stick on 11 June 2019 at 8:28 am UTC

Guys, calm down. Everyone and especially Linux gamer hate Epic, but I don't think it's fair to boycott Klei.

First, Klei has good history for supporting Linux and its gamer. Even their old game like Mark of the Ninja and Don't Starve is still updated. So, while this Epic Exclusive thing is a bit annoying, we should go easy on Klei, especially since they promise that Griftlands will be available for Linux in Steam.

Second, Griftlands has been under development for around 4-5 years. That long development time is painful, both from mental and money side. This double for small indie company like Klei. So, financially, it's understandable that Klei took the exclusive contract with Epic.

Third, the game will only be Epic Exclusive for 1 year while the game is still in Alpha phase, and will go to Steam in early access. IMHO this is fine, because the exclusivity is only for Alpha phase where the developer (usually) still only focusing on the game concept. This is why the Alpha game usually buggy, unbalanced and barely have any content. So, IMHO let those Epic users play and test the game for one year, while us Linux users wait for it to be ready. Of course, it's different stories if the final game is still only Epic Exclusive.

Finally, the contract between Klei and Epic has already signed. So, no matter how much we hate it, the ship has been sailed and there are no way for Klei to break it, no matter how many backlash and complains from the community.

Bottom line, as Linux gamers, IMHO instead of boycotting them, we should just wishlist their game on Steam and tell them that we, the Linux gamers, are waiting for them in Steam (and GOG), but never in Epic. This way, hopefully they know that we do love them and their game, but we won't be able to support them if they are in another castle.

Lots of our heroes turn out to not care *that much* about Linux.


Last edited by sub on 11 June 2019 at 12:26 pm UTC

Lot's of our heroes turn out to not care *that much* about Linux.

Not like you can blame them though of course. They have a business to run, regardless of how passionate they are about ideals. If I was put in the position of dropping 2-3% of my sales in order to instantly gain masses of capital? It's a no-brainer. People have families to feed, jobs to secure.

Anyone who argues otherwise is just disconnected from reality, I think.

I still hate Epic for their tactics of course, but maybe some actual good can come of the money they're flinging around - smaller devs getting big capital payouts and guaranteed sales, competition for Steam, and hopefully very little impact on Linux as a whole.

I'm grasping for a silver lining, of course, but I think there's a definite over reaction to all this.

I still hate Epic for their tactics of course, but maybe some actual good can come of the money they're flinging around - smaller devs getting big capital payouts and guaranteed sales, competition for Steam, and hopefully very little impact on Linux as a whole.

What I hate most about the situation is that the smaller indie devs are actually abused by Epic in that "war" and it seems like they don't even realize it.

Lot's of our heroes turn out to not care *that much* about Linux.

Not like you can blame them though of course. They have a business to run, regardless of how passionate they are about ideals. If I was put in the position of dropping 2-3% of my sales in order to instantly gain masses of capital? It's a no-brainer. People have families to feed, jobs to secure.

I think it is pretty short sighted. Sure, they get a bunch of money now, but they not only dropped Linux sales, but also the sales of Windows gamers that won't buy Epic exclusives and maybe even put the company on their blacklist of publishers not to buy games from. In the long run, this may amount to more losses than they gained with a one time payment from Epic.

Lot's of our heroes turn out to not care *that much* about Linux.

Not like you can blame them though of course. They have a business to run, regardless of how passionate they are about ideals. If I was put in the position of dropping 2-3% of my sales in order to instantly gain masses of capital? It's a no-brainer. People have families to feed, jobs to secure.

I think it is pretty short sighted. Sure, they get a bunch of money now, but they not only dropped Linux sales, but also the sales of Windows gamers that won't buy Epic exclusives and maybe even put the company on their blacklist of publishers not to buy games from. In the long run, this may amount to more losses than they gained with a one time payment from Epic.

I think that's incredibly unlikely. Epic pay for the exclusive and also guarantee a minimum number of sales. Klei would have to work hard to lose anything by this. I think the numbers already show that not nearly enough people care about voting with their wallet. Coffee Stains latest game, Satisfactory sold half a million units already. Time will tell, I suppose.