UPDATE: Following continued criticism, Iceberg Interactive has decided to remove the game from all digital stores while they work on a patch for the ending. Those who bought the game game and desire a refund can still obtain one via GOG and the game remains in your library if you already bought it.
We recently reported that the sidescrolling survival horror game “Dark Matter” was released on Steam in an unfinished state, but publisher Iceberg Interactive now claims the game is part 1 of a series and that the media misquoted the developer. Crap… that includes us.
“The first instalment is what has launched recently on Steam and is simply called Dark Matter,” CEO Erik Schreuder wrote on Steam “We would like to stress that the game is exactly as described on Steam (including that it contains 14 levels) – it is simply not true that the game is unfinished, or unplayable. Some people have misquoted the developer as having admitted that the game is incomplete; we should reiterate that what was meant was that this is not the $30 full-priced game, but the episodic budget version.”
This is an interesting turn of events, since developer Interwave lost most of its staff, GOG is now offering refunds and the game became subject to harsh criticism, so I can’t help but wonder where the money or resources for a part 2 would have to come from. I am also sure Interwave left very little open to interpretation when they stated they were going to change the “to be continued” part of the ending screen to make it “a clear msg to everyone” that this was the end of the game.
Still, if Iceberg Interactive is willing to invest the money in making sure the story is completed and is also willing to cut those who bought the first game a nice deal for this hypothetical episode 2, then I really can’t complaint.
[Source]
