The community for Kubrickian survival title, We Happy Few, has been divided by a new update from the developer, Compulsion Games. Following the release of its Life in Technicolor update, it's announced that the game has been pushed back to April 2018. That's not what's angered people though. It's the news that Compulsion's partnership with Gearbox games now means that the game is going to increase in scope, to the point where it believes it warrants a $60 price tag.
Oh and none of the planned DLC is included in that.
We Happy Few was originally a Kickstarter success story that became an Early Access Success story. Those communities require fostering and continued feedback between players and the developers. That's something that some fans feel is undermined by big, unannounced changes, especially when it means a publisher having a looming influence over a game.
What once was expected to be a game of indie size and indie pricing, is now something much bigger. Indeed, the developers believe they'll be turning it into something that's up to 2.5 times bigger than the recent update by the time the game launches. But that publisher influence also means pre-order bonuses, a Collector's Set and DLC, which as aforementioned, is not automatically gifted to early buyers. Kickstarter backers, however, will be gifted the Season Pass for free.
Compulsion also made a point of stating that it isn't cutting out pieces of the game to make DLC, but is adding new ideas and features:
"DLC for us is not "carving out existing content"; it’s building new content that we wouldn’t have been able to do as part of the main game," Compulsion said in its update. "It’s risky, because now that we’ve announced it we’ve committed to it. It’s our first time doing it, so maybe in a year we’ll have a different opinion. In the meantime, once work on the game finishes up, we’ll have a bit of a rest, and then dive into the wacky world of DLC. "
How do you feel about this news?
