Always online for single-player game?

[Thuzar]

Some new lows reached with all this involuntary/non-consensual personal data collection, don't see any other reason why the game would be always-online. Good thing the refund went through...

[StormSaber]

Yeah, what's up with that?

[Suguru]

What the f? So I deliberately bought this game as it was a good metroidvania and they tell me I can't play the game, as it is ONLINE ONLY? This is the last time I buy anything from them. What a pathetic joke...

[Suguru]

WTF!?

https://i.imgur.com/RkZThXA.jpg

Thank you, refunding.

[game0575]

did your refund go through even with more than 2 hrs put into it? I want to request one too

[Thuzar]

Originally posted by game0575:

did your refund go through even with more than 2 hrs put into it? I want to request one too

Nah, luckly I didn't play much before the recent announcement (which revealed this) hit. But I guess Steam support must be lenient towards those who want to refund because nowhere, and at no place, is this information visible on Steam store page (this is basically in breach of GDPR - not informing the buyers and potential puyers that the game is always online and why it is online (hint: it's because of data collection and processing, no two ways around it))

[Suguru]

I tried refund twice an they rejected me twice FFS

[Chumpp]

I've asked for a refund as well - something uncool going on with this dev.

[luxko]

Just FYI and to clarify some misconceptions: this game doesn't (and will not) require always online for playthrough.
We don't collect any data from users as of now(see edit). Hack we don't even have a dedicated server running for feedbacks even right now. We did collect some data during beta-testing within a specifically setup beta branch with notifications making it very clear to the participants that that was the case.
Today's incident was really unfortunate and I personally dislike some of the decisions made as much as you guys do. But it is a completely offline thing too. Try set your computer datetime to something other than Dec.6 2022(*edit: typo), you'll be able to bypass the "maintainance" easily.

---

edit: I got ahead of myself and oversimplified. Strictly speaking we do collect data from users, otherwise all the typical steam services like cloudsave, achievements and playtime tracking wouldn't have been possible.
What I meant to say is that we don't and won't collect any data other than necessary, not without clear player consent.

[luxko]

Originally posted by Suguru:

WTF!?

https://i.imgur.com/RkZThXA.jpg

Thank you, refunding.

Again to clarify: this popout is a leftover content from our steam demo. It will pop out if you try to run the game offline (due to not being able to fetch the newest notification from our notification server). But it's just a pop out message. The fullgame is still completely accessible.

Please stay assured that this doesn't mean that you're somehow suddenly playing the demo version, no. You're still playing the full-release with all the updates.

I'll try to clean that message up during the next content update.

[PrimeBrew]

Originally posted by luxko:

Just FYI and to clarify some misconceptions: this game doesn't (and will not) require always online for playthrough.
We don't collect any data from users as of now. Hack we don't even have a dedicated server running for feedbacks even right now. We did collect some data during beta-testing within a specifically setup beta branch with notifications making it very clear to the participants that that was the case.
Today's incident was really unfortunate and I personally dislike some of the decisions made as much as you guys do. But it is a completely offline thing too. Try set your computer datetime to something other than Dec.6 2002, you'll be able to bypass the "maintainance" easily.

Pretty cool of you to step forward with a statement and workaround.

[game0575]

Originally posted by luxko:

Originally posted by Suguru:

WTF!?

https://i.imgur.com/RkZThXA.jpg

Thank you, refunding.

Again to clarify: this popout is a leftover content from our steam demo. It will pop out if you try to run the game offline (due to not being able to fetch the newest notification from our notification server). But it's just a pop out message. The fullgame is still completely accessible.

Please stay assured that this doesn't mean that you're somehow suddenly playing the demo version, no. You're still playing the full-release with all the updates.

I'll try to clean that message up during the next content update.

seems like a huge miscommunication issue
specifically this part "Players will not be able to start the game during this time"( in the update notice).
With all due respect a customer should be able to use whatever they purchased at whatever time they choose if it was never mentioned to be online driven from the beginning.( As people have mentioned maybe a different approach as restrictions in the country that has those, or giving a direction as to why this is happening for people who have no Idea as to whats going on). Granted with digital content its an entire debate.
I am not aware as to why it is specific to this date ,but appreciate the efforts to communicate with everyone even though it seems as though English is not the primary language.
Will test the game in offline mode to make sure the statements are true,
and once again thank you for addressing our concerns.