Grim Dawn Dev Details Frustrating Publisher Fallout

When Crate Entertainment launched a Kickstarter campaign for their new fantasy RPG, Grim Dawn, a boxed collector’s edition seemed like an obvious high-tier reward. The project raised $537,515 back in 2012, but backers still haven’t received their boxed version. Crate recently posted an update detailing the situation behind the delay and some promising news for backers still waiting for their physical rewards.

According to the Kickstarter update, roughly 8 months ago, a publisher approached Crate Founder, Arthur Bruno, about doing the boxed physical copies of the game. “They were going to handle all the shipping and everything, seemed like a win-win. It’s what other, more experienced developers who’s Kickstarter’s I’d backed had done for their boxed copies, so I figured that was the way to go,” he explained.

Unfortunately, things moved at a glacial pace from there. “Any time you do anything with a publisher, you have to expect back and forth on the contract to remove all the parts where they’re going to screw you over—it’s just standard procedure.” Despite frequent lags in communication during these negotiations, Bruno remained confident that backers would soon be getting their boxed copies. This optimism lasted right up until January of this year when the publisher stopped responding.

“For reasons unknown, the guy I was working with on this deal just stopped responding. At first it seemed normal, despite how urgently I kept saying I needed to get this done, for them to not respond for a few weeks. However, more time went on, I sent follow-up emails, I never heard anything. They totally ghosted us…”

Bridges Burned

Crate Entertainment has opted to work with a different company to fulfill physical copy rewards. “Even if they got back to me now, I’m a bit too pissed to ever want to work with them again.”

Things have progressed much faster since the switch. Crate now has the option to include a few extras (cloth map, keychain, etc.) in with the boxed copies. The team will be making the final decision on exactly what those extras are over the next couple of days so production can begin. They are expecting to begin shipping in the next couple of months.

The rewards are long overdue, but the update seems to have satisfied most backers . Likely, the promise of additional items helped sooth them. Several backers have even come forward to ask about purchasing the upcoming boxed edition. Hopefully, this fiasco is the last of Grim Dawn’s troubles.