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Everspace 2 “will launch on Steam first, no matter what”

Rockfish says the game won't be an Epic exclusive

Earlier this year, the CEO of Everspace developer Rockfish Games said that Steam is “the best platform, by far” for indies. Now, it looks like the upcoming second game in the space shooter series will be heading to Valve’s platform at release, and won’t be an Epic Games Store exclusive – the studio has just announced that Everspace 2 “will launch on Steam first, no matter what.”

Everspace 2 was announced this summer at Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, and has now got a Kickstarter campaign launch, with a funding goal of €450,000. An update on the Kickstarter project page posted this weekend says, in a section titled “No EGS exclusive,” that the devs “have noticed that since our last Kickstarter, things have changed quite a bit.

“Due to broken promises from indie devs all the way to AAA publishers, it is probably no exaggeration to say that trust in developers is at an all-time low, especially in regards to Epic Games Store exclusives of titles that were originally (co)funded on Kickstarter.” The studio then announces that part of the reasoning behind launching another Kickstarter campaign is to “double-down” on its promise to launch Everspace 2 “on Steam first, no matter what.”

Rockfish adds that Valve’s digital videogaming storefront “is and will be” the studio’s most important.

Some indie developers have this year decided to launch their games on the Epic Games Store as exclusives but it looks like the Everspace won’t be following suit. Rockfish CEO Michael Schade previously said that “our hardcore fans are on Steam. They have already said ‘please don’t do it. We just don’t want it’” and added that what Valve’s platform offered was “exactly what we need.”

Everspace 2’s Kickstarter campaign is set to end November 4, and if it reaches its funding goal, it’s due to arrive on Steam in Early Access September 2020, with the full release to follow in the second half of 2021.