Owners of the Original Bulletstorm Won't Get a Free Update to the Remaster

[ffronw]

Owners of the Original Bulletstorm Won't Get a Free Update to the Remaster

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1365/1365951.jpgIf you were hoping that you'd get a free upgrade to the Bulletstorm remaster, we've got some bad news for you.

At the Game Awards last week, Gearbox announced that it will be publishing a remaster of Bulletstorm [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/168959-Gearbox-Announces-New-Publishing-Label-First-Title-is-Bulletstorm-Remaster]. After seeing free upgrades for the PC remasters of Skyrim, Darksiders, and Bioshock, just to name a few, PC owners of the original Bulletstorm might be hoping that the same thing would be true for this game. Unfortunately, Gearbox has announced that this won't be happening. Furthermore, there won't be a discount for owners of the original game.

The news comes from Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford. When asked by a fan on Twitter if a discounted or free version would be offered, Pitchford responded [https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic/status/804539291590279168], "Not possible - completely different publisher, era, platform (they were Games for Windows only), product/sku, etc."

As you might imagine, the internet wasn't entirely pleased with that reply. Many replies pointed out that the Darksiders remaster was free, and that it had all those same issues. Pitchford said [https://twitter.com/DuvalMagic/status/804888141962346496], "If that is a deal breaker for you, you should skip it."

While it's certainly disappointing to hear that we'll need to play full price for Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, it's not entirely surprising. As Pitchford mentions, it's a slightly different situation than a game like Darksiders where the company owns all the rights to the IP. That said, it's also not likely to do the remaster's sales any favors, especially given that some people are still upset at Gearbox over the Aliens: colonial Marines debacle, among others things.

We'll just have to wait and see if this announcement affects the game's market prospects when it launches on April 7, 2017.

Permalink

 

[sXeth]

I'm puzzled as to how it hurts sales. The people who are hypothetically not going to buy it because its not free? Because free copies aren't really sales, in the traditional sense.

Maybe there'll be some vocal minority backlash, but they're pretty straight forward about why it couldn't be done. Its certainly not on par with the deception around A:CM, or the goofiness with Battleborn where they cut the price in half 2 weeks later effectively flipping their Pre-order/Day 1 audience the Bird.

Maybe the proliferation of free copies might generate some hype on the Youtubes or wherever, but nothing a few well-placed "review copies" wouldn't. (Not saying review copies are a bad thing, but there's a lot of Youtubers who never post a review that seem to acquire them)

 

[Battenberg]

"Furthermore, there won't be a discount for owners of the original game."

Not giving away a remaster free is understandable (assuming they are actually putting a decent amount of work into it) but not giving people who have the original a discount on the remaster seems a good way to ensure it sells like crap on the PC. Their loss I guess.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, this particular owner of the original Bulletstorm won't be paying a fucking cent for the remaster because this owner of the original Bulletstorm can no longer play the his copy of the original Bulletstorm due to the original Bulletstorm being crippled literally beyond use by the inclusion of defunct GFWL DRM. This owner of the original Bulletstorm does not wish to reward such conduct, nor indeed to give money to Gearbox at all.

This owner of the original Bulletstorm is performing a barrage of one-finger-salutes in the general direction of Mr Pitchford.

 

[Covarr]

Much as I generally dislike Randy Pitchford, he is absolutely right about the mess it would be to try to work this out, as the original was published by EA, and Gearbox does not own the game at all, just publishing rights. I further can't blame him or Gearbox for the original never being updated to ditch GFWL, because Gearbox had precisely nothing to do with the original version of the game.

That said, it would be nice if he would at least attempt to strike a deal with EA and People Can Fly. If he were to tweet "I'll see what I can do, but no promises," he'd be making himself look a lot better than he is now. And frankly, Gearbox needs that kind of positive publicity these days.

P.S. Thanks

 

[gigastar]

Meh. Just get it on sale.

 

[Zulnam]

"If that is a deal breaker for you, you should skip it."

The first honest thing to come out of Pitchford's mouth since he said "mama".

 

[Benpasko]

People are still giving Gearbox money?

 

[Callate]

And Gearbox just keeps on ridin' that goodwill train, don't it?

I'm not surprised by the choice, just by the failure to have a better response ready for the inevitable question.

 

[RealRT]

Yay, my tweet in the OP (I'm Richard Teph).

Well, this particular owner of the original Bulletstorm won't be paying a fucking cent for the remaster because this owner of the original Bulletstorm can no longer play the his copy of the original Bulletstorm due to the original Bulletstorm being crippled literally beyond use by the inclusion of defunct GFWL DRM. This owner of the original Bulletstorm does not wish to reward such conduct, nor indeed to give money to Gearbox at all.

This owner of the original Bulletstorm is performing a barrage of one-finger-salutes in the general direction of Mr Pitchford.

This other owner of the original Bulletstorm would like to sign under your every word.

Randy, you card, but what about Duke Nukem 3D: 20th Anniversary World Tour? Owners of Megaton Edition also got jack and shit, no loyalty discount, no nothing and you bought all the rights to Duke Nukem franchise.

Also, Randy, my little sunflower, how's Battleborn going for you?

 

[Neurotic Void Melody]

I'm not entirely sure the PC crowd really like buying the same game twice for meagre updates, when mods can pretty much do all that and more. But perhaps the PC platform's strengths don't cross Randy's mind in the slightest.

 

[Tony2077]

Well, this particular owner of the original Bulletstorm won't be paying a fucking cent for the remaster because this owner of the original Bulletstorm can no longer play the his copy of the original Bulletstorm due to the original Bulletstorm being crippled literally beyond use by the inclusion of defunct GFWL DRM. This owner of the original Bulletstorm does not wish to reward such conduct, nor indeed to give money to Gearbox at all.

This owner of the original Bulletstorm is performing a barrage of one-finger-salutes in the general direction of Mr Pitchford.

hmm my copy loads without problems even gave me the gfwl menu thing

 

[RealRT]

Well, this particular owner of the original Bulletstorm won't be paying a fucking cent for the remaster because this owner of the original Bulletstorm can no longer play the his copy of the original Bulletstorm due to the original Bulletstorm being crippled literally beyond use by the inclusion of defunct GFWL DRM. This owner of the original Bulletstorm does not wish to reward such conduct, nor indeed to give money to Gearbox at all.

This owner of the original Bulletstorm is performing a barrage of one-finger-salutes in the general direction of Mr Pitchford.

hmm my copy loads without problems even gave me the gfwl menu thing

Were you able to log in to GFWL and play the game proper?

 

[Shadefyre]

Definitely one to just pick up with a GMG discount, if you're planning to at all.

 

[Saelune]

To be fair, Bethesda and THQ giving away the remasters for free was actually a very generous thing for them to do. And as much as Id like generosity to be the norm, its not something unfair to expect to have to actually buy the game.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

I don't see why they can't just do a games library check on Steam and then offer a discount for the game or give it away for free. Obviously, physical copies won't be able to be validated because they don't have a way to check those keys, but Steam users should definitely at least get a discount.

 

[American Fox]

*gif of Ashley Burch punching Pitchford in the balls*

 

[The Enquirer]

I guess they need the money after Battleborn.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Most people likely got the original Bulletstorm on a massive discount on Steam. Sorry guys, but I side with gearbox on this one. Its a business. Its a game that didn't sell super well anyways, what did people expect?

 

[Xorph]

Good, with how garbage the game was I can't say I'd have been looking forward to having two of it in my library.

Were you able to log in to GFWL and play the game proper?

Not the same person but yeah, entered my MS login info and it logged me in and ran fine, it's been the same for every GFWL game I've played. Hell, Resident Evil ORC even let me and a friend play co-op. To the best of my understanding all GFWL shutting down did was bust multiplayer for games that used it for their servers.