What a truly bizarre disclaimer.

Supergiant took the timed exclusive deal so they could afford to avoid crunch while developing one of their games. Do you take issue with them treating their employees well?

If you have an issue with how Epic treats its game developers then don't buy Epic games. If you avoid buying games from other developers out of some bizarre logic that this will somehow "teach them" to deal with Epic, you'll just end up driving them out of business or toward the crunch deathmarches they were trying to avoid.

Otherwise, by your logic, you should avoid buying games from any AAA developer, or from any digital storefront (including Steam), or for any console. Basically, you would need to avoid buying games at all except from a very small set of indie developers.

I waited and got it on steam.

You can't blame them for taking time exclusive money, they are a business afterall. And its not like they support their practices.

>You can't blame them for taking time exclusive money, they are a business afterall.

Yes, I can blame them for that. When running a business you have to decide what your core principles are and which ones, if any, you are willing to compromise for money.

>And its not like they support their practices.

Taking their money and listing their game on the Epic store is an endorsement of Epic's business practices, just like listing your app on the Apple App Store is an endorsement of Apple's business practices.

They absolutely support their practices by doing business with them. Not only did they list their game for sale on their store, they took their money (earned via those business practices) to give them the exclusive right to sell the game on their store for a period of time. This has the goal of driving even more customers to Epic. They don’t do these deals out of benevolence.

Have you bought a Nestle product? Is so you support child slavery.

By your logic:

> You absolutely support their practices by doing business with them.

Life is not black and white.

> Have you bought a Nestle product? Is so you support child slavery.

If Nestle is engaging in child slavery and you buy their products then yes you obviously are supporting child slavery through indirect material cooperation. Behaving morally isn't easy, which is why it's so rare.

I try to avoid Nestlé products and would not enter into a major business relationship with them if I had the choice. The extent to which I decided to entangle my life or business of theirs would change the degree to which I felt like I’d be supporting their business practices. I agree, it’s not black and white, but I don’t understand how you can say a company doesn’t support Epic’s business practices when they choose to accept their money and help expand their share of the marketplace they operate in.

This seems like a pretty cut and dry example though. It’s a direct financial relationship where Epic profits off of Supergiants games. That money is support. It allows Epic to propagate their views and business model.

Whether or not you choose to adapt your purchasing decisions based on this knowledge is a separate question of your ethics and other factors.

By this logic, should we avoid any game that uses Unreal Engine?

You should discourage the use of Unreal Engine and avoid it wherever possible if you believe that Epic is an unethical company, of course.

How far does that chain extend though? If I buy a tuna melt from the local sandwich shop, and the owner of that shop goes and buys a video game, and the game company paid Epic for Unreal Engine, did I just support Epic?

And what do you believe in?

Taking their money is absolutely supporting Epic and what they do. Supergiant have every right to chose money above everything else but a few gamers won't take it and will just not buy their game at all. I didn't buy it and I'm aware I make no difference to them but if I had bought it I'd be part of the problem.

How exactly is getting a better rate for game distribution "selling out?" Supergiant benefitted themselves and their developers by getting more money for the game.

I don't understand the vocal support for Steam over Epic Games. Steam literally charges you more and there are no competitors as big as Steam. I'd rather have a de facto duopoly vs a monopoly. And yes, I'm aware of GMG, Origin, Blizzard, etc.