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Back in January, strategy specialists Arcen Games announced its then newest game—the roguelike bullet hell Starward Rogue—had been received well critically, but had flopped financially. This in turn forced mass layoffs at the studio, its founder and CEO Chris Park wrote in a blog post, therefore much rested on the shoulders of its latest game In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor.
After just three days on sale via Steam’s Early Access programme, it’s been pulled, refunds have been offered, and will now be given away free-of-charge.
“I'm going to give all the customers of In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor a full refund and let them keep the game, then take the game off sale,” explained Park in an update post on Saturday—just three days after the game’s Wednesday launch. “The game is selling extremely poorly, even below what happened with Starward Rogue.”
Park then explored the reasons why such a seemingly drastic decision was made after such as short period of time, which he said was mainly down to past experiences and his regret for failing to act quickly enough in steadying the boat. In a new update posted today, Park explains he and Arcen’s plans moving forward and how to initiate refunds.
“Finally today I was able to have full conversations with Valve and Humble, we got things taken down, and I finally have some concrete answers for you on exactly what is planned next,” says Park. “Valve had some great suggestions based around the multitude of various requests that people have had during this period. I wasn't sure exactly what to do, so I was very glad for the guidance there.”
Ultimately, Park hopes In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor will eventually catch on in its free-to-play state, something which will make him consider a fully-realised follow up. Otherwise, Arcen will work on AI War 2: Rise from Ashes—a follow up to the original game which made the company’s name.
Although stated in the posts linked above, there doesn’t appear to be any way to download or install In Case of Emergency, Release Raptor—for free or otherwise—at the time of writing.
