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Some drama between Digerati and the developer of the game. Store page defaced by developer.
https://mobile.twitter.com/OutboundGhost/status/1600145091489832960
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Conrad is upset about the way his game launched on the Switch. Nintendo didn't approve the update yet, so there's not much Digerati can do about it, it's in Nintendo's hands. There's been a decent amount of cases where games don't perform properly on Switch, so it's not surprising that there's issues.
Conrad going public and stating that he didn't approve the sale that's happening is strange. I'm really scratching my head about the store page as Conrad said he has no control over it, but there's been announcements and changes to it that aren't ones that Digerati would make, especially from a legal standpoint and they've been in business for awhile. The actions on the store page seem very erratic. Conrad may be digging himself into a big hole, especially when it comes to pursuing legal action with the statements he's making publicly.
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"The actions on the store page seem very erratic. Conrad may be digging himself into a big hole, especially when it comes to pursuing legal action with the statements he's making publicly."
He said his legal team approved of what he's doing.
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When you say "approved what he's doing". What exactly did they approve? His video and the things he's stated? His actions on the store page? What exactly did his legal team approve?
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Everything he's said is approved by his legal team, as he's publicly stated: https://twitter.com/OutboundGhost/status/1600966844114145280
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Wouldn't this have been better as a post instead of a reply to my post?
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There's nothing wrong with the Steam version to my knowledge, and Conrad approved it all.
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I dont understand. So the dev said that he has no control over his game, but we clearly can see he made a mess to the game's store page. It seems the dev has a personal issue with the publisher and decide to screw the publisher because they know that most people will support developer over publishers without thinking?
I mean, if the dev has no control over the game, the publisher can just screw up the game and put a high sale on his game like what nacon did (and keep the store page as it is, because why not)
Edit: the twitter post also dont explain anything. So he claimed that digerati published the game without his permission and he just want to cut off with the publisher because of it? You can set a game to be not on sale on steam. If he can screw up the game's store page like that, i believe he can set the game to not be available on sale as well.
Edit2: digerati's statement: https://mobile.twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1601245863979859968
they are not talking about the sale but they claimed that they have been ghosting the dev since he is pissed off with the console launch and didnt talk to the publisher in good terms. It might just be a communication issue then. I can see both sides are at fault here.
EDIT3: about the console launch:
https://mobile.twitter.com/OutboundGhost/status/1598340308181426179
https://mobile.twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1599418875501678592
I assume they made the switch fix so close to the release date so it didnt get approved in time before it launch (with pre set date and pre set discount), then the developer went nuts since the newest version wasnt the one published on launch. Still not sure what is happening on the sale thing - it could be done by either sides.
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I think that twitter post was deleted.
Maybe is this?: https://mobile.twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1601245863979859968
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Strange. I think my phone gave the wrong link. This should be the right one: https://mobile.twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1601245863979859968
Edit: seems you found it first, hahah. I'll edit the link in that post.
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I didn't see this till you posted it, thank you. From what I know of Digerati, they are really nice people to deal with and a good publisher. This response from Sarah should definitely give the public a lot more understanding of the issue. Conrad put a lot of hard work into his game, and I get that he's upset with how the launch on the Switch went, but the way he's handling things is not good.
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I have never talked to digerati before, but i kinda agree with you. I saw that they have published a lot of games on switch already, so it is not like they are screwing up this dev on purpose. It seems that conrad's lack professionalism with his issue on the switch launch was what triggering this.
I'm still curious as to who put up the sale on steam though since it looks fishy.
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He did give them publishing rights so they may not need to contact him to put it on sale if it's in their agreement. It's really hard to say without knowing the details of the distribution agreement. With what happened to the store page I think he may just be acting irational because he's upset and so he may be doing other things as well that aren't rational. Conrad seems like a nice guy. I really hope that the lines of communication between him and Digerati stay open and the situation can get fixed. As I mentioned above in a comment, the fix for the Switch is in Nintendos hands as they have to approve it, and tbh that can sometimes take awhile from what I know of.
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So they are allowed to put a game on a sale without the dev's approval if that's what written in the contract? I'm not familiar with these things so i just want to make sure. But again, the sale was just the same as the launch sale so i dont think the dev loses a lot of money over this (people who buy it on discount wont even buy it on full price)
I hope so too. All of those talk about lawyer seems to be getting out of hand just for something like this. They just need to solve it privately and peacefully. The current condition is just a loss for all sides involved.
Yeah, it seems you are right. I also found a comment about day 1 patch not releasing too: https://mobile.twitter.com/OutboundGhost/status/1598368864038887424 (and digerati responded that it's on the way)
In that case, i still think that this issue is overly exaggerated.
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Sarah mentioned they paid him before the console launch in exchange for full distrubtion rights. Digerati may have not even recouped what they paid him yet.
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So as far as the update on Switch Digerati posted on the 4th that it should be within a week. The new update concering the Switch was on the 8th and that also mentioned within 7 days.
https://twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1600898203263664134/photo/1
It's pretty crappy that it's taking this long for people who bought it on Switch to get the update. Unfortunately there is a possibly that the update was not approved for whatever reason and there needed to be another one. From what I'm gathering Conrad didn't doing the update and it was outsourced by someone who is familiar with Switch. Outsourcing for this type of thing from my understanding is sort of normal.
When it comes to getting approval it can be a real pain in the ass for development studios and publishers. For consoles, Nintendo is the hardest from my understanding, which this incident with The Outbound Ghost an decent example of that. As far as IPs, Disney/Marvel/Star Wars the approval times can be REALLY bad. I've heard this from a lot of devs I'm friends with who develop games with those IPs.
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yeah, i believe conrad leaves all of the porting to digerati and didn't get any involvement whatsoever, then he asked to get control over the console pages (what for? defacing the page like how he did on steam? he doesn't even have any knowledge of porting games (which i believe why he didn't self-publish the game like his other 2 games) and even if he does, they are just waiting for nintendo's approval, so there's nothing for him to do at this point).
whoa, i know there would be some delays, but i didn't know that it could be that bad. thanks for the insight!
i kinda feel bad at digerati at this point since people blindly bashed them even though both sides are at fault. i don't see why digerati couldn't sell the game (even nacon still sold the sinking city when they were on dispute with frogwares), especially if they already invested some money on conrad. does conrad want to pay digerati all of the money back? i believe there will be some additional fines if he wants to breach that contract too, and it's not like he doesn't get the cut if people buy the game at this point... right?
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From the new article that Sooth posted it appears reported today that Digerati is now taking legal action. Apparently Valve removed the game from sale, and apparenlty Digerati inquired about the changes to the Steam store page before that and was told by Valve that the changes "were made by one of the users authorized to make such changes under your partner account". Conrad said he doesn't have control of the store page, basically saying he didn't do it. So if that turns out to be false and he did make the changes he very well could be in some deep shit. There's actually 2nd publisher in this, Merge Games(this isn't included in the article). I don't believe they were listed on the Steam store.
EDIT: Merge Games was responsible for the retail version(physical copy) on Switch, PS4 and PS5.
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oh wow, i didn't see the update when i clicked it. it seems the update was recent.
i'm surprised that valve was the one who removed it from sale. iirc, they made it into "unable to see this product" or something page on the nacon case.
also, is it true that merge games was also listed as publisher? i didn't see the changes on steamdb so i just want to make sure.
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I updated my comment. Merge Games is a publisher, but for the distribution for all physical copies of the game going out. Degerati is handling the digital side. So it doesn't seem like they would be involved on Steam, but they could have been included since they are one of the publishers.
https://www.giantbomb.com/the-outbound-ghost/3030-87999/releases/
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Whoa, this might be an even bigger mess that i thought if that's the case.
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https://www.pcgamer.com/the-outbound-ghost-dev-defaces-his-own-steam-page-in-dispute-with-publisher/
Everything you all are trying to work out in the comments above is now addressed in the above article, including timeline and perspectives.
It'd be better to use that article as the primary link for this thread, moving forward.
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Thanks for posting that Sooth. There's an update in it today that's important.
Adding this to the OP would definitely be a good idea.
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There's actually a lot of content that is new, in that it wasn't clearly or fully covered by the piecemeal links previously sourced, but the content Fate is referencing is at the very bottom of the article, wherein the now active legal procedings provide further details about the dispute (and Digerati's statement that they now have a suspicion that a third party had been responsible for pushing the dispute along).
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I am guessing Sooth means it's everything put together in a single page, including tweets and everything
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Man, what a mess.
It seems this time it's the developer not clearly reading well the contents of the contract
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Update.
Nintendolife.com has posted an update which includes a link to a complaint to the courts filed by Digerati. These are in the form of a bunch of downloadable files on the US District Court's website. Nintendolife has copy and pasted the full statement from Digerati in their article.
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2022/12/the-outbound-ghost-publisher-takes-legal-action-following-dev-complaints-and-steam-page-edits
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Update
Digerati announced that the game is back on Steam.
https://twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1602376253721518080
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1276810/The_Outbound_Ghost/
The switch update was approved.
https://twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1602443897833197569
I do want to mention that this doesn't nessarily mean everything is resolved between Digerati and Conrad.
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There was an update today concerning the game.
Before the shit hit the fan in December a roadmap was posted in November which you can find here. November - multiple languages, new NPCs and sidequests, and remastered soundtrack and music releases on other platforms. December - New Game+ and Status Presentation rework. 2023 - Aspect UI Rework, more post-game minibosses, Map/Quick travel rework, and Objective party chat addition.
While the game was restored to sale on Steam, no updates have happened since then. With the newest tweet by Conrad my guess is there's not going to be any either. Conrad just tweeted a few minutes ago that there's legal discussions going on concerning the Outbound Ghost and the situation with the Publisher,Digerati. Conrad also announced the studio is now branded under it's new name "Radhood" and is working on their new game Soul Stalker, which is a Survivor Roguelike inspired by Vampire Survivors with Paper Mario visuals(same as the Outbound Ghost) that will launch on Steam Early Access sometime this year. There's also another game in developement called, GravityRascal. This game doesn't have a Steam store page yet.
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I thought the outbound ghost was 1 man developer team tbh.
Anyway, i wonder what's up with the name change...
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It was originally if I'm not mistaken, then others joined.
Jade Geels is a freelance programmer.
Lyndon Kwan is freelance sound designer.
https://www.lyndonkwansound.com/
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Some kickstart rewards haven't been given out due to the legal dispute going on and Conrad tweeted about the situation.
https://twitter.com/OutboundGhost/status/1619063329464672257
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/conradicalgames/the-outbound-ghost/posts/3717647
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Conrad has posted an updated video about the situation with the Outbound Ghost.
I DMCA'd My Own Indie Game
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https://store.steampowered.com/app/1276810/This_game_is_no_longer_authorized_by_the_developer/
Dev's statement: https://twitter.com/OutboundGhost/status/1600932695579963392
Publishers statement: https://twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1601245863979859968
https://www.pcgamer.com/the-outbound-ghost-dev-defaces-his-own-steam-page-in-dispute-with-publisher/
[Edit]
https://twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1602376253721518080
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1276810/The_Outbound_Ghost/
The switch update was approved.
https://twitter.com/DigeratiDM/status/1602443897833197569
[Edit 2] Seems dev moved on to another game, and no updates since. https://www.steamgifts.com/go/comment/V72vL2p
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