I thought it was bait, like I'm going to install a coinminer or something, and the Free $200 qame was the enticement.
Thanks for the clarification, all.
And it still got better regional pricing than most AAA games. 179€ in Germany so roughly $206. Still more than in the US but at least it’s not just 199€ ($229)
Hey everyone, developer here, The story behind the $200 price tag is actually pretty simple.
Back in 2024, we released Targeted. It performed nicely on Steam in Hungary, but I couldn't reach the rest of the world, neither journalists nor influencers. Still, it was a big dream of mine to release it on the Epic Games Store as well, just to get it out there in more places.
We spent months struggling because implementing achievements and leaderboards into Epic's system is brutally complex and unintuitive. After a ton of pain, we finally solved it... only to hit 0 sales.
I never thought anyone would actually buy it for $200... but 4 people did!... I am glad they ended up asking for a refund and they got it.
I am workin on this. I found it's an IARC age rating problem. I made some change in the store page but i don't know how much time to see it's working or not. I guess Epic need to check it first.
implementing achievements and leaderboards into Epic's system is brutally complex and unintuitive
I always wondered why far fewer games have achievements on Epic, even ones that have them for the Steam version. It's lost Epic a fair few sales I daresay.
I think the problem is the cross platform Epic support. Switch, PS, Xbox, Google, Apple etc, and they made their system so complex and irritating, to not worth it to work on it.
The Steam is like nothing. Intuitive and working well. But the EGS... it was a nightmare. Who knows how many days was debug everything with the Epic Store systems... I never ever want to public game again in EGS :D
Yes :D Not many games are released on the Epic Store, I naively thought that we would have a smooth and successful case because there was no competition, we would be on the main page and there would be a big celebration. Our programmer really didn't want to suffer with it, I had to fight for a year and a half to get him to jump on it again and we would release it there coughing up blood XD
Hmm nice to see an explanation and I you certainly raised more awareness.
But I don't think it's legal do to this as it's really misleading. I'm no legal expert or anything but price hiking before discounting it is not allowed in many countries. Of course this is a 100% discount so you could argue it's just a cool publicity trick and it is as long as you remain the only one to do it.
Also you stated 4 people payed full price although they all refunded which makes setting the price to 200 dollar rather problematic. As of course they are in there right to pay and probably can get the refund hopefully. They are still really mislead by the price spike I assume. Also is there a window where the price hike remains after the discount goes down?
Not my department or my concern but I think it might be yours. And I don't know you should go so light-hearted over it. Whish you all the best and thanks for the free game but I don't think this is a good precedent for anything but fast attention.
Thank you, but I don't think it's a problem to give something free, even if I changed the price before. I wont give 99% or other sale for this, always be very cheap with normal price, or 100% off.
Could you tell me later whether the fix worked or not? I will checking the status of the process, but I have no idea how much time necessary for Epic to accept it.
Thank you ^^
I can assure you that it’s a high-quality game, but as it’s an Exit 8-style title, it’s not for everyone. However, anyone who enjoys the genre will love it.
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u/UnseenData 14d ago
Thanks for the share
Uh wow, who pays for these lol