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[HadesGigas]

Update: Game has been removed from Steam.

Crescent Moon Games
‏@CM_Games
The version of Paper Monsters that was released on Steam is NOT legit - and not authorized by us - DO NOT BUY. @MobotStudios

https://twitter.com/CM_Games/status/430472940958674945

http://store.steampowered.com/app/275370

Not sure exactly what's going on here, since that tweet is basically all the info they've said so far.

It seems like Strategy First has published the game elsewhere without incident, so they must have some sort of publishing rights:
http://www.greenmangaming.com/s/us/en/pc/games/indie/paper-monsters/

But the developers were working on a new version of the game to sell on Steam and Wii U and probably don't want the original popping up on Steam a month or two before the shiny new version "Paper Monsters Recut":
http://www.mobotstudios.com/

This was also a game that went through Greenlight, submitted by Crescent Moon Games:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=92226289

So the issue seems to be that Strategy First was not involved in that Greenlight campaign. The developers decided to make a new version to release instead, but Strategy First saw that the game was Greenlit and got their version of the game submitted to Valve. They got it published on Steam without Valve probably even knowing the developers had other plans.

Wonder if there's anything they can even do or if whatever agreement they had with Strategy First allows for this to happen.

 

[Mrbob]

This seems really shady by Strategy First. Trying to capitalize on some monetary value before the recut version is out. Also abusing the fact that Crescent Moon Games got the game Greenlit. This is definitely a case Valve should look into and remove ASAP.

 

[HadesGigas]

Crescent Moon Games 15 minutes ago
This is the version that Strategy First released about 2 years ago on the PC, which was never intended for Steam. We told them we did not want to release the Steam version under them, as it was already on Greenlight before we even started talking to them. Steam has been notified, hopefully this will be taken down soon. Sorry for the confusion guys.

http://steamcommunity.com/app/275370/discussions/0/558746995210277947/#c558746995223949471

 

[HoosTrax]

The question is, did Crescent Moon actually sign some sort of contract, that they're backing out of now, or is Strategy First overstepping the terms of their contract.

 

[Messofanego]

That is really weird, haven't heard something like this before.

 

[HadesGigas]

The question is, did Crescent Moon actually sign some sort of contract, that they're backing out of now, or is Strategy First overstepping the terms of their contract.

Well I think either way it would make more sense to not have this outdated version of the game on Steam. Whoever has the right to be the publisher would be better off to have the new version published instead of this one.

 

[WX3]

I just hope the developers don't get hurt or damaged over this.

 

[HoosTrax]

Well I think either way it would make more sense to not have this outdated version of the game on Steam. Whoever has the right to be the publisher would be better off to have the new version published instead of this one.

Oh I definitely agree; I would never buy this unless it has seen a modern update to add HD and the usual Steamworks features.

But I just don't want to commit to taking a side in this without knowing the exact details of the contract that they originally signed with Strategy First.

 

[Ms. Tea]

Game seems to be gone from Steam - it's still showing up in "new releases", but the game link is redirecting to the front page.

 

[chubigans]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

 

[Riki]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

Holy fuck! There needs to be legal action taken against this shit!

 

[ephemeral garbage]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

Holy shit, you've got to be kidding me. Scumbags! I loved The Oil Blue and I'll happily pay you directly for it.

 

[BY2K]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

Jesus Fucking Christ.

 

[HadesGigas]

Game seems to be gone from Steam - it's still showing up in "new releases", but the game link is redirecting to the front page.

Yeah the game is no longer viewable on Steam.

All that's left is the community pages
http://steamcommunity.com/app/275370/discussions/

 

[Oersted]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

Sickening.

 

[Amagon]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

That is fucked up bro.

 

[mre]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

By the way, if you're interested in getting that $500 (or you just want to follow through on the principle alone) it's most likely not too late to sue them in small claims court. Breach of contract claims usually have long statutes of limitation.

 

[Catshade]

Strategy First is known for not paying royalties to their developers (link, link, link, link).

 

[enzo_gt]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

Wow, what the fuck

 

[chubigans]

Holy fuck! There needs to be legal action taken against this shit!

Holy shit, you've got to be kidding me. Scumbags! I loved The Oil Blue and I'll happily pay you directly for it.

By the way, if you're interested in getting that $500 (or you just want to follow through on the principle alone) it's most likely not too late to sue them in small claims court. Breach of contract claims usually have long statutes of limitation.

Yeah I might do that at some point, but it's hard to know exactly how much they owe when I haven't gotten a single royalty report. And heck if I trust anything they give me at this point. It was a hard lesson, but a really good lesson...I made sure I didn't do the same mistake with my next game.

Funny thing is, even though I've given them three takedown notices regarding my game for sale on their site, it's still there, sold at a higher price than I ever priced it: http://www.strategyfirst.com/games/2524-the-oil-blue.html

Never ever buy anything from SF. They don't pay devs and I wouldn't trust them with any of my personal info, that's for sure.

Strategy First is known for not paying royalties to their developers (link, link, link, link).

Ugh, wow, I didn't know it was that bad.

 

[Lactose_Intolerant]

Pretty sure they have always been crappy publishers. I remember Timegate bad mouthing them on Kohan

 

[Random Painted HIghway]

Wow this is fucked up. I saw that game pop up on steam a little while ago at 15% off and was mildly curious.

 

[Kifimbo]

Strategy First was a decent company back in the Disciples/Disciples II days. It's been all downhill since then.

 

[mre]

Yeah I might do that at some point, but it's hard to know exactly how much they owe when I haven't gotten a single royalty report. And heck if I trust anything they give me at this point. It was a hard lesson, but a really good lesson...I made sure I didn't do the same mistake with my next game.

Funny thing is, even though I've given them three takedown notices regarding my game for sale on their site, it's still there, sold at a higher price than I ever priced it: http://www.strategyfirst.com/games/2524-the-oil-blue.html

In your limited communication with them, have they admitted that your game has sold *some* copies?

 

[HoosTrax]

Strategy First was a decent company back in the Disciples/Disciples II days. It's been all downhill since then.

I remember buying the Strategy First bundle during a Steam sale years ago. Loads of good titles; Sacred, Jagged Alliance 2, Disciples, Darkstar One, to name a handful.

I think the original company went bust later and got resurrected into what it is now.

 

[chubigans]

In your limited communication with them, have they admitted that your game has sold *some* copies?

No, but I had a lot of people who said they bought my game on sale, which was on a site that SF was publishing on.

 

[GulAtiCa]

Wow. I hope Valve throws them out and prevents them from releasing other games if they are just stealing games like that.

 

[Riki]

I smell class action lawsuit.

 

[Blizzard]

I remember buying the Strategy First bundle during a Steam sale years ago. Loads of good titles; Sacred, Jagged Alliance 2, Disciples, Darkstar One, to name a handful.

I think the original company went bust later and got resurrected into what it is now.

Yeah it's really sad to me too. I seem to remember Strategy First having a good many decent adventure game titles too (assuming they were treating the developers properly then).

 

[BudokaiMR2]

Wooooow that is really messed up. Giving us other indie publishers a bad rep.

 

[gngf123]

Jesus that's bad. I think I've bought a few Strategy First published games in the past as well.

 

[Cody_D165]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

christ

this is fucked.

 

[mclem]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

So, out of interest, is there a way we can buy The Oil Blue to guarantee you actually see some of the revenue from it?

 

[Blue Ninja]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

They should be ashamed.

In all seriousness though, there has to be something you can do about this, because this is just plain awful.

 

[JaseC]

Shameless cross-post:

Crescent Moon got back to me about the whole Paper Monsters thing. The long and short of it is that they don't yet know if they can claim the app Strategy First submitted, and SF hasn't paid them a dime over the past two years.

 

[Clefargle]

Strategy first, ask questions later

 

[CassSept]

I remember buying the Strategy First bundle during a Steam sale years ago. Loads of good titles; Sacred, Jagged Alliance 2, Disciples, Darkstar One, to name a handful.

I think the original company went bust later and got resurrected into what it is now.

They also made a great Robin Hood game that nobody on GAF sadly remembers.

I see they did have some financial difficulties several years back so maybe that's it, yeah. Shame, what they are doing is downright despicable and illegal, I'm surprised they're still doing it after so many reports.

 

[JaseC]

It looks as though SF did the same with Sentinel 3: Homeworld, too:

Speaking of Scammers First: they're also listed as the publishers of that Sentinel 3 game which also came out yesterday. I wonder if the devs are even aware it's on Steam. There's no mention of it on their site, and they (Origin8) are listed as the publishers of the GamersGate and Shinyloot versions.

...I might tweet at them.

Hmm, well, it and Paper Monsters were added to the registry back-to-back, so it's not looking good. Maybe I'll pick up a few spares -- if I get lucky and the game is pulled I may be able to get my mittens on Paper Monsters after all.

Edit: Origin8 submitted it to Greenlight in August 2012... and it hasn't been greenlit.

Toddhunter tweeted Origin8 about 10 minutes ago so we'll have confirmation soon enough.

 

[Dynamite Shikoku]

How the hell have they been getting away with this shit?

 

[toddhunter]

Toddhunter tweeted Origin8 about 10 minutes ago so we'll have confirmation soon enough.

I'm actually pretty salty about it if it is not a proper release. I really enjoyed Sentinel 3 and have often recommended it to mobile owners. I'd hope it does well on steam and the developers do well out of it.

 

[Sendou]

Strategy First picked up my first game for publishing (the Oil Blue) and proceeded to never pay me, ever. I went up the wall trying to get a hold of someone, no luck.

A kind dev on GAF knew one of the higher ups, and finally someone at SF contacted me saying they'd pay...but only if I hit the $10k payout minimum, which funny enough is not in a single one of my contracts. And then I never heard from them yet again.

Strategy First is a bunch of con artist scumbags. I doubt they made much with my game (maybe $500 or so) but that was a lot of money for me at the time, and it hurt that I didn't have it.

The fuck

The kind of stuff you hear here but there is always someone with something that manages to exceed all others.

 

[VibratingDonkey]

Wow. Had no idea. Seemingly like many others, I thought they were solid based on their heritage. I'll make sure to steer clear of any games sold/published by them from now on.

 

[Kid Ska]

Damn. Glad this is getting out there - people need to know about this bullshit.

 

[erpg]

I think I'd be a good idea to make a Strategy First, scum of the earth compilation thread with all those links. Disgusting practise.

 

[Tempy]

It was a hard lesson, but a really good lesson...I made sure I didn't do the same mistake with my next game.

What did you have to do to make sure you didn't get scammed by another publisher?

 

[HoosTrax]

What did you have to do to make sure you didn't get scammed by another publisher?

Self-publish, I'm guessing.

 

[alstein]

This seems really shady by Strategy First. Trying to capitalize on some monetary value before the recut version is out. Also abusing the fact that Crescent Moon Games got the game Greenlit. This is definitely a case Valve should look into and remove ASAP.

They are shady. They royally screwed off Paradox and Stardock in the 90s, and that's a big reason Impulse and Gamersgate were launched- both companies said never again.

Also, they screwed over Timegate, which led to them producing Kohan: GOTY edition, which was basically just a repeat of Kohan, just to get out of the contract.

As for Oil Blue, it's on Desura at least.

 

[chubigans]

So, out of interest, is there a way we can buy The Oil Blue to guarantee you actually see some of the revenue from it?

vertigogaming.net works, as does Gamersgate and Desura. Thanks!

What did you have to do to make sure you didn't get scammed by another publisher?

Self publish, hah.

I think I'd be a good idea to make a Strategy First, scum of the earth compilation thread with all those links. Disgusting practise.

Well I do have some good news... Thanks to this thread this may get some coverage outside of GAF. We'll see!

 

[Locust]

e: wrong thread, welp

 

[toddhunter]

Got a reply from the Sentinel 3 devs:

@Origin8: @toddhunter It's one of those things that had been simmering in the background for ages, then suddenly BAM hello Steam!

So yeah...