Indie Dev Unfold Games has made a surprising announcement: a Darq Epic Games Store release is on the way and will be available for free for one week.
Darq is a game about a boy experiencing a lucid nightmare. This indie horror game launched a couple of years back and turned out to be a pretty polished piece of entertainment (albeit a short one).
What made this game more notable, however, was its developer turning down an exclusivity offer from the Epic Games Store after the Steam launch was announced. The developer explained the decision in a Medium post, and it might have been for the best considering the backlash that Ooblets received for its own Epic Games Store exclusivity deal.
A couple of days later, the EGS exclusivity deal was in the news due to someone responding to a tweet from Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney. Sweeney noted the game's building hype on Steam and explained that that was what had caught the company's interest; in response, Unfold Games made a rather interesting offer.
"If you change your mind and accept DARQ to your store non-exclusively, I’ll donate 100% of my EGS revenue to a charity," Unfold Games said in a tweet. "If you accept, the charity can be picked by the [gaming] community at a later date."
As we know by now, Epic Games apparently didn't accept the deal. Since then, Darq developer Unfold Games penned a deal with Bloober Team's publishing arm Feardemic. As it turns out, Feardemic CEO Scott Millard has a pretty solid relationship with the Epic Games Store and that led to discussions kicking off again. The result? Darq is finally making its way to the Epic Games Store.
"I had a great chat with the EGS representative, during which we explored the possibility of bringing DARQ to their store," Unfold Games explained in a Medium post. "That’s pretty much what happened! The chat was super nice, relaxed, and professional. In all honesty, I appreciated that a lot, given the seemingly rocky start to our relationship back in 2019."
Darq will be arriving on the Epic Games Store later this month and it will be free for its first week of availability. And if you're wondering about that whole promise to donate the sales proceeds to charity, Unfold Games has stated that it intends to keep that promise.
"All revenue that will be generated from sales on the EGS will be donated to charity," Unfold Games said. "The first in line is the Gamers Outreach charity. Their aim is to empower hospitalized children through video games. The donations might rotate between several gaming-related charities in the future (if you have ideas, let me know). For now, I’m sticking with this one for a while. Their mission speaks to me for personal reasons and I’m honored to contribute to their cause on an ongoing basis."
It should be noted, however, that Unfold Game is also getting a lump sump for the one-week exclusivity period. That chunk of cash will be used towards funding the company's next game which is stated to have "10 times the scope of Darq[.]"
When is the Darq Epic Games Store Release Date?
The Darq Epic Games Store release date is October 28, 2021. The game will be available for free for a one-week period from October 28-November 3, 2021; after that, it will be available for purchase.
You'll be able to get Darq: Complete Edition for free on the Epic Games Store next week. If you don't want to wait, you can buy the game for PC via Steam and consoles via its official website.
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