Back in 2014, Gloomywood launched a crowd-funding campaign for its stealth adventure game, 2Dark. Gloomywood promised to release this game on DRM-free digital stores (such as GOG and Desura). However, and after signing up a publishing deal with Bigben Interactive, these plans have been abandoned.
As Bigben Interactive claimed, 2Dark will be using the Denuvo anti-tamper tech. As such, there are – obviously – no plans to release this game on GOG (after all, the publisher will have to remove the Denuvo anti-tamper tech in order to make it available on that particular store).
As Bigben Interactive’s community manager stated:
“2Dark uses Denuvo Anti-Tamper DRM system. This DRM system has proven useful against piracy and many game studios make use of it in order to protect their creations. As the publisher of 2Dark, Bigben Interactive is also responsible for the protection of 2Dark and its intellectual propriety against piracy. This DRM will, in addition to Steam’s own DRM system, help the creators of 2Dark continue doing what they love: bringing great games to players!”
Regarding the promises that have not been fulfilled (like the Linux version that has been cancelled and the fact that there would be a DRM-free version of 2Dark), Bigben’s community manager had this to say.
“Gloomywood’s crowd-funding campaign did not mention a DRM, but the campaign has evolved much more than originally anticipated. After all, there were no initial plans to develop for PS4 or Xbox One consoles, record the soundtrack with an orchestra, and provide a voice to Smith (as well as many other things.) This was all made possible because Bigben, and the 2Dark fans, believed in Gloomywood’s creative vision and wanted to support the game.”
In other words, Gloomywood’s publishing deal with Bigben Interactive prevents it from releasing a DRM-free version of 2Dark.
Ironically, the purpose of crowd-funding campaigns is to get games funded by gamers so that developers are free to do exactly what they want and not what their publishers force them too.
Heh, guess that campaign wasn’t enough after all!
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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