This post originally published at Game Politics.
A new Humble Bundle is upon us. This bundle launches the release of Botanicula, the latest game from the creators of Machinarium, Amanita Designs. While these Humble Bundles are getting more and more common, this particular one launched with a fair bit of controversy.
This controversy stems from the fact that the only place to pre-order the game was from GOG.com. What was an exclusive deal for GOG and its customers quickly became the subject of ire and backlash from pre-order customers. You see, GOG sells the game for $10 and those who pre-ordered Botanicula got a partial soundtrack and some wallpapers. They thought that was a fairly good deal until they learned that those who buy from the Humble Bundle not only got the game, but 2 other games and the full Botanicula soundtrack. This could have been purchased for little more than $0.01.
This took GOG by surprise. It spent the next few hours quiet on the issue simply expressing their surprise before writing on Facebook that they would announce a good deal for those that pre-ordered the game. At the time of this writing, GOG had not announced what exactly that deal will be, but I did receive word from a representative of Amanita that they will not leave GOG customers hanging:
everybody who pre-ordered Botanicula on GOG.com will get the full soundtrack, the art-book (not released yet) and Machinarium for free tomorrow. and of course also our eternal gratitude for supporting us:)
Update: GOG has announced that along with what Amanita has promised, GOG is throwing in a copy of The Witcher Enhanced Edition.
That is a very fine remedy for what could have been a much larger issue had it been ignored for longer than a day. However, this really didn’t have to be this way at all. Had Amanita simply kept GOG in the loop with its launch plans, they could have worked together to prevent this fan fall out.
We all make mistakes, game developers too. So let’s not let a little bit of controversy over launch day promotions get in the way of enjoying what looks to be a very nice game. The guys at Amanita and GOG both want fans of the game to be happy and enjoy the purchases they made. I think that is the important part to remember.
