Unforetold: Witchstone is cancelled (unfortunately)

[Gokyabgu]

According to a recent Discord news, Unforetold: Witchstone put on hold indefinitely. Sad news.

 

[JDR13]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1765092027702624662

There are going to be a lot of pissed off people on Steam.

 

[daveyd]

More shitty news for the games industry. It's a real shame, the game had so much potential IMO. I hope all their employees can find work elsewhere.

 

[Couchpotato]

There was also a steam update posted today.

Unforetold: Witchstone - An Important Message From Spearhead Games - Steam News

It is with great sadness that we address you today regarding difficult decisions that we had to make concerning Unforetold: Witchstone. The past few weeks have been challenging, as the combined impact of financial prospects that did not materialize have put us in a difficult position. Hence...

store.steampowered.com

Not surprised as the game had a very troubled development and mixed reviews.

 

[Carnifex]

Ugghh....yup, no surprise yet it still sucks. -xx

 

[purpleblob]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1765092027702624662

There are going to be a lot of pissed off people on Steam.

I have to say, I'm glad I didn't take the plunge with this one.

 

[Vaelith]

I'm more sorry for the people who paid for the Early Access, possibly giving up on buying something else. Luckily, it's been years since I've made that mistake.

 

[JDR13]

I have to say, I'm glad I didn't take the plunge with this one.

I wonder if Steam will make a special exception for people who want a refund in this case. Probably not, but they should. I've never seen a game go belly-up less than 2 months into early access.

 

[Gokyabgu]

I'm one of the EA buyers. There's a month and a half between the early access release date and deciding to pull the plug for the whole project. I'm sorry, but this is the very definition of scam. You don't realise in one day that your company is in financial bad shape. It shows itself months in advance. So, they must have known it from the beginning. My real sadness is that people's trust in EA will be shaken because of such companies. Mine has been already shaken to the core because of that.

 

[Ivanwah]

It looked really promising, sad news indeed. Maybe calling it a scam is a bit harsh. I agree that they must have known that the situation is bad, but they could have used the early access as a way to inject some cash into their company and keep it afloat, which didn't work out unfortunately. Same outcome, either way, and I hope they can work with Valve to refund the buyers. I'm skeptical about that, though.

 

[Vaelith]

There is a name for trying to put out an unfinished product to get some cash before it all goes to hell knowing the situation is pretty dire, and it's much closer to scamming people than being honest to them.

If I'm going to be ruined, might as well make innocent customers mitigate some of the damage for the mistakes I made.

 

[daveyd]

Yeah I don't disagree I'd just point out that most of the employees are not to blame. Only the individuals who run the company would have knowledge of the company's financial situation. The rest were probably blindsided by a sudden loss of their job and are now left scrambling to find work.

 

[Vaelith]

I agree, the brunt of engineers and devs, every John and Susan that worked at the office, have most likely very little to do with it, and they'll be the ones suffering the most. You could argue that if they had been more talented, they wouldn't have ended up that way but realistically, most of the time it's a couple of people at the top who call all the shots and sink the ship for everyone.

From the EA reviews and some comments even in RPGWatch, you could tell this game wasn't in shape even for EA, and had nearly no content at a premium $30 price tag. The EA was a desperate dishonest hail mary that couldn't have ever gone well, and they knew it.

 

[Carnifex]

Indeed, that early access stage is often a game, as are kick starter projects. Fortunately most of them have a happier conclusion.

 

[HellRazor]

Game development must be one of the least secure jobs in the world. If you're lucky, MAYBE you MIGHT get to produce a completed game before being laid off or fired.

 

[Zloth]

Steam is not in the business of vetting the products it sells. I wouldn't expect them to pay anything back. That goes double for an Early Access game. The warning is on there for a reason.

Calling it a scam is a bit much. They may have been putting it in EA to show some investor that the game could sell - then it didn't sell so well, so the investor didn't invest. They don't know if they can get the game through EA until the investor's money shows up.

 

[purpleblob]

So, the price of the EA is now reduced dramatically and devs said they will try to talk to Steam about refunding those who paid the initial price:

Unforetold: Witchstone - Answering Your Questions - Steam News

Closing Development on Unforetold Witchstone

store.steampowered.com

Dear community,

The discontinuation of Unforetold: Witchstone and the subsequent team layoffs has deeply affected us all at Spearhead Games. We want you to know that this decision was not made lightly. Facing significant financial shortfalls, we were compelled to make this heartbreaking choice due to insufficient funds to sustain the project and support our valued employees.

We understand the frustration and disappointment this news may bring. Please know it was always our intention to create and support a game that you, our passionate community, would love and enjoy. The perception that funds were taken without delivering on our promises could not be further from the truth.

To provide further context, Unforetold: Witchstone has a long history. What began as a prototype made by a lean team of 10, grew over the past six years to encompass a development team of nearly 40. This was only made possible by an investment from a large third-party publisher, which also led us to increase the scope and ambition of the game. However, a few months ago, that publisher made significant cuts internally, including dropping us and several other projects.

Following that terrible news, but believing in our amazing team and what we were building together, we made the decision to use the studio’s savings to continue developing the game together with the entire team. We were optimistic that securing another interested publisher was a viable path forward, or barring that, we could take the game into Early Access if the search dragged on.

However, as many of you have noticed over the past year, the industry has changed greatly, with many layoffs and cancelled projects at some of the world’s largest studios. It quickly became a time where pursuing funding became a massive uphill battle. Still, we remained optimistic that we could garner some interest if we launched into Early Access, and that the sales would support our team while we continued to look for interested partners.

Despite our initial positive expectations for the game's sales, we sadly did not meet these objectives. This financial reality forced us into making a decision we had hoped to avoid. While we tried, and are still actively trying, to secure funds to complete the game, the current climate of the game industry makes that prospect unrealistic at this moment.

We acknowledge that our previous communication could have been more comprehensive, particularly regarding the Steam platform specifics (price adjustments, refunds, etc.), which was an oversight for which we take full responsibility. We are learning from this experience and acknowledge the need to improve how we communicate significant changes. Your trust is paramount to us, and we are dedicated to rebuilding it moving forward.

To address the concerns raised, we have provided below the current details regarding Steam pricing and refund policies for Unforetold: Witchstone. Our commitment to transparency remains steadfast, and we are in ongoing discussions with Steam to clarify and expand upon these measures as necessary. As new information emerges, we will promptly update this section to keep you fully informed and supported.

Is the game staying in Early Access?

Unforetold: Witchstone will remain on Steam and in Early Access. We have updated the Steam store page to notify potential players that the game is no longer supported, and if they purchase now, the game is not likely to change. While removing the game from Steam completely or offering it for free was considered, we have legal obligations to investors to maintain the sale of the game.

Is the pricing going to change?

To reflect the fact that the development of the game is on hold indefinitely, we are reducing the price to $9.99 USD.

We feel that this price will allow more people to enjoy what has been created so far, and that the game may still serve to inspire other developers while leaving the door open to investors to complete the game.

I’ve played more than two hours, can I still get a refund?

Steam’s policy is that refunds are not offered past the standard 2 hour playtime window, even in the case of Early Access titles. We are currently in talks with them to make a special case for those that wish to refund past this point, but we cannot promise this will materialize. This decision is not up to us, but to Steam. We will keep you posted as soon as we have clarification on what is possible.

 

[Ivanwah]

There is a name for trying to put out an unfinished product to get some cash before it all goes to hell knowing the situation is pretty dire, and it's much closer to scamming people than being honest to them.

If I'm going to be ruined, might as well make innocent customers mitigate some of the damage for the mistakes I made.

I agree, but maybe they were just naive and thought they could really pull it off. The game does look promising. That's why I made a distinction from a pure scam where they would've had no intention whatsoever to ship the final product. Again, not much of a consolation to those affected, and I agree they should have been more transparent, but we all know that amount of transparency was never going to happen.