Thanks for the confirmation, you have more patience than me. :) I attempted to find out that way too but couldn't wait for everything to load.

Frankly, I think this should still reflect poorly on the publisher. They are the ones who should be play-testing a game fully before publishing. If the publisher doesn't do it, who will? Pushing a game out with bugs which can be addressed later with patches is one thing. Pushing a half-finished game out and advertising it as if its complete in my opinion is fraudulent. Yeah, they may at first been duped by the rights owner, but after testing and seeing that end screen, they would have been able to go back to them and say 'wtf did you just sell us?'

So why is this game so low-rated ? Is it just because of how short it is, or...

I suppose the question is, did they know it was half baked before pushing the game out? Or were they unaware of its 'incomplete" nature?

At a guess, they knew alright. They simply had no idea the sort of internet sh-t storm they were bringing down upon themselves. It's been non-stop damage control out of these guys ever since.

Back when I was doing some contract work for the makers of a series of episodic games, the dev team spent hours agonizing over whether or not each episode had enough content and told a satisfying chapter of a larger story. They swore that if they didn't get it right people would feel cheated and would hate them forever. I didn't really believe them then... but after seeing this? Yeah. Maybe they were onto something.

Well, that and the fact that they were pretty upfront about what the customer was getting...

I doubt we will ever find out. But I think if they did their due-diligence, they would have discovered it.

Sounds like a quality developer.

Montague's Mount redux.

GOG response.

Iceberg Interactive asked GOG to pull the game for now.

That's what I more or less meant when I said Iceberg Interactive made the right move after realizing it's their reputation that's on the line (the game studio doesn't sound to be much of a game studio anymore). IMHO, this sort of disastrous release will haunt them for a long time - it is the Internet after all.

Thinking about it, I can't rule out that they did know - they're an experienced publisher after all. And their first reaction (that wall of text on the Steam forum) came across as an attempt to justify their misjudged decision to try and pass it as a finished game. I guess the revelations of it being almost identical to the evaluation build the dev company put out a few months ago was the final blow, leaving the publisher with no other option than to take more drastic measures in terms of damage control, hence they pulled the game from all digital stores.

For the sake of people that got excited about it I still hope that when the game resurfaces it will result in a more satisfying experience (though I don't know how this can be done with the original development team out of the picture).

I resent the implication that I have anything to do with the clearly First Amendment abridging concept of the NDA. Oh, you meant "sinister". :)

In seriousness, I understand the business reason for NDAs, but find them chilling nonetheless. The idea that you cannot speak about something is intrinsically anathema to me. Yes, I understand all too well how vital it is in many circumstances (people who work in high security or high risk settings, or in cutting edge research). But much like how the "unskippable" content on DVDs was originally intended just for the FBI/Interpol warning (and now is used for logo bumpers, ads, and other nonsense), the use of NDAs has changed from protecting vital knowledge to being a blanket way for businesses to cover their asses and even obscure bad practices. Not saying this applies to GOG, but NDAs are still used far more indiscriminately than they should be, especially in ostensibly transparent democratic societies.

Honestly I was kinda looking forward to this game. Guess we'll have to wait for it to be finished.

I don't know if this has already been said, but Eric Schreuder the CEO of Iceberg Interactive, mentioned that Dark Matter should be an episodic game with each episode costing about 15$. The now released game which is just called "Dark Matter" is only the first episode of at least two. Later episodes will or will not be released, depending on the success of the former episodes.

Source 1: http://www.joystiq.com/2013/10/20/dark-matter-publisher-game-is-meant-to-be-episodic-series/
Source 2: http://steamcommunity.com/app/251410/discussions/0/810938810836838055/

Well I think this should have been communicated from the beginning.

I don't think that it was only a problem of communication. The game suddenly stops somewhere and tells the remaining story in text messenges. Even if this is only an episode, I don't think that it was ment to be released this way. So it seems as if we only got a part of the first episode. This would be really bad if publishers can release half finished games in future and say that they only finish the game if it sells well.

Still want to buy this...hope it's coming back.

Cheers

It seems like a bad idea not to mention it was suppose to be in episodes. However worse it seems they didn't intend to finish it unless they got enough in sales.

I think perhaps it could still get over this if all future episodes WILL be released shortly (say once a week), as updates to the game; Then they can then get full price for the game which then funds the remainder of the game. BUT it can't be based on the success of the game sales(s) and remains the same quality as it was before.

With the bulk of the graphics and engine already done, new material would be the only thing to worry about, however that does seem like it would be causing problems, unless they already had an extra episode done and were holding it in reserve in case one of their later episodes takes longer to complete in time, so they have a few extra days to complete it.

But with the original team being laid off, it now becomes a disaster.

Honestly, I'd pay $15 for a good game, not $15 per episode ($100 for the full game). I've always been a bit frugal, so this is somewhat confusing news.

Honestly, the current rightsholder should sell everything Dark Matter to an interested party. They weren't able and/or willing to monetize what they had, and right now they are exactly where they started AND with a pr disaster on their hands.

Well, it looks like the publisher has hired an external team (the original one got fired back in July or so) to cobble together some half-baked ending or another. (I'm not at liberty to source this... but one or another of the gamer journalist sites should be have it up sooner or later. Maybe someone else can post a link,)

So, it will probably be back on shelves in fairly short order. One the one hand, they almost certainly have some of the stuff past the "door of no return" half finished. On the other hand... I can't remember the last time a an external team took over a game and something good happened.

Honestly, I'd love to see this game finished and properly fleshed out. That probably means waiting for them to finish a second "episode" which finishes up the storyline of the "endevour" . If they ever get it to that point (not likely) I'd be first in line to buy it (again.)