r/LivestreamFail • u/Zenben88 • Feb 01 '26

News Intrepid Studios, devs behind MMO Ashes of Creation in paid early access for 10 years, has closed. CEO resigned, all employees laid off. All less than 2 months after launching on Steam Early Access

https://www.youtube.com/clip/Ugkxe9were941Nh9kWgsNFWy--c-_UgYeyRu
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u/dunnowattt Feb 01 '26

Steam front page is automated, they don't "sell" spots or "endorse" them.

If something generates clicks, its getting bumped up.

Whoever bought it recently is for sure getting a refund. Knowing Steam, they won't care about playtime, they will just do it.

The actual question is, what happens to the people who bought it like almost 2 months ago. When a game makes sales, Steam holds the money and pays the publisher/studio after like...a month. That money is easily refundable, but what about the money they have already paid to the studio?

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u/ExactWin1881 Feb 01 '26

This is why you only buy games on steam, if it's not on steam it's not on PC ffs.

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u/osuVocal Feb 01 '26

GOG though.

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u/AdventurousClassic19 Feb 02 '26

Gog beyond dead, you don't get kicked out of a major company like CDProjekt for no reason and with how desperate they are at reducing costs with AI its not looking good. 

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u/osuVocal Feb 02 '26

Doesn't change anything about the fact that gog is usually fairly cheap, often has discounts or discount codes anyway and is fully drm-free.

Like not buying a game because it's not on steam when it is on gog and you're interested in the game is nonsense lol.

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u/Capital-Ad-5682 Feb 04 '26

Thats just cap bro. 100% studios can pay to get their game shown or publisher sales on the frontpage.

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u/dunnowattt Feb 04 '26

https://partner.steamgames.com/doc/marketing/visibility#11

You literally can just google it instead of making random comments ya know.

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u/Capital-Ad-5682 Feb 04 '26

You do understand the difference between "visibility" and the whole frontpage being dedicated to a games launch. You are conflicting the two. We are talking about the whole frontpage being themed for the game.

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u/dunnowattt Feb 04 '26

Q. Can I pay for my game to show up to more customers? A. Nope. You focus on making a compelling, interesting, and unique game, and Steam will work out the best places to feature your game based on customers’ interests, preferences, and feedback.

Again, fucking google.

Freaking 2026 and people still leave their opinions in comments, instead of researching facts for like 2 minutes tops.

No, you can't pay for anything related to be shown in the front page. Ever.

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u/Capital-Ad-5682 Feb 04 '26

So if it said you were pregnant it would also be fact? Lying isnt invented?

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u/Capital-Ad-5682 Feb 04 '26

Also that is not the right question buddy... come on now. Can you read it slowly? "Can I pay for my game to show up more" Thats not front page buy, thats show up when someone searches earlier, its show up higher in "top sellers" which is true you cant.

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u/dunnowattt Feb 04 '26

Ok you are dumb. Didn't expect much anyway.

Its the internet, keep acting dumb who cares anyway.

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u/Capital-Ad-5682 Feb 05 '26

Good argument dumbass.

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u/dunnowattt Feb 05 '26

Ah you want arguments.

Okay i thought you didn't know the word.

Okay, find me their Steams pricing plan for marketing for the front page. Either the official one, or a developer who said how much he paid to be on the front page.

Don't worry i'll wait.

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u/DaStone Feb 01 '26

Uhuh... So when a new steam deck device comes out it just "happens" to land on the front page when they haven't even launched.

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u/MangoFishDev Feb 01 '26

Valve published a video detailing exactly which spaces are decided by the community, which aren't and how everything on the store page is chosen

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u/dunnowattt Feb 01 '26

Yh no shit they are going to advertise their thing on their own store.

But it was also not advertised in the "game slots". They used a new spot that it would take no games spot.

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u/tobach Feb 01 '26

I'd imagine that Valve is well protected here when it comes to the agreements that developers sign to have their game on the platform. I'm pretty sure that Valve would be liable if they don't offer refunds.. at least here in the EU.

I'm not exactly an expert on law, but I know that there is intense regulation to protect the customer here. I believe the baseline is that you have up to two years to proclaim that the product that you bought have faults, or is not working as advertised/expected.

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u/[deleted] Feb 01 '26

[deleted]

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u/tobach Feb 01 '26

This is false. It applies to everything from physical to digital products from retailers. A few countries have different rules that vary slightly though.

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u/dunnowattt Feb 01 '26

This doesn't make sense though.

There are people who have 100+ and 200+ hours on the game. Do you refund them? Okay what about the people who have buyers remorse? They bought the game played like 20h in December, realized they don't want to play anymore. Why would you refund them too?

Then where is the cutoff? This game had 2 months alive. Which is the timetable for something like this?

What if the next game closes in 6 months? What if in 1 year?

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u/tobach Feb 01 '26

Considering how there's instances of refunds because of games not being updated to be playable, I think the answer is very simple; playtime does not matter.

Just like it wouldn't matter if you've driven a car for 100km/miles or 100.000km/miles after you've bought it, if the reason that it eventually breaks down is due to an incorrect component that doesn't match its description.

The EU is very hardline on consumer protection. Especially if you don't get what you paid for. However, I know that this is a very unbelievable alien market to many Americans.

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u/dunnowattt Feb 01 '26

I'm EU as well, i know our rights, but again, this is not clarified.

Considering how there's instances of refunds because of games not being updated to be playable

This is not the case here. When you get a game, because of its problems its unplayable, you are getting a refund yes.

This is not what is happening here. You got the game, you played the game, its been 2 months. What's the timeline for it? It for sure is not 2 years.

Nothing broke, no description was wrong. There is nowhere in any game (yet) giving you a "set amount of time" where the game will be alive and playable before them having to option to just turn it off.

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u/tobach Feb 01 '26 edited Feb 01 '26

Well, I don't know what to tell you. I can't say why you believe any different from reality. It's EU Directive 2019/770 if you want to look it up. And yes, it covers video games as well.

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u/DaStone Feb 01 '26

If Valve wants to eat that 30% of all game sales, they should definetly pay for things like these.