Indie developer suggests players ‘not buy’ his game as relationship with their publisher has ‘dissolved’

The developer of The Outbound Ghost asked players not to buy his game following a falling out with his publisher.

Conrad Grindheim – lead developer of The Outbound Ghost – took to YouTube to say his relationship with his publisher, Digerati, had “dissolved” and wanted the publisher to return the publishing rights to him.

Stating that the indie title “doesn’t live up to the quality standards of the games I make that you expect of me,” he asked fans to avoid the game and said he was filing a lawsuit. justice to protect “our business, our name, our reputation and the rights of consumers”.

“The past few weeks have been incredibly stressful due to many factors, but the main reason is that my relationship with the game publisher has dissolved,” said Grindheim (cheers, PC Gamer). “My priority will always be to do well with the fans of the game.”

Digerati editor initially issued a statement in early December, acknowledging issues with the Switch version and saying “hopefully [a patch] won’t be much longer.” Three days later, he told his Twitter followers that he was “aware of the performance issues” on Switch and said a fix would be coming “in the coming week”.

Outbound Ghost’s own Twitter account said it was “incredibly disappointed” with the game’s performance on console and urged gamers to stick with Steam because “the Steam version is the one I approved of”.

A few days later, Digerati released another statement on Twitter, stating that “in addition to the day one patch that was available for the PlayStation versions, an additional update went live on Tuesday, December 6.”

“The patch for the Switch version is still under review with Nintendo, but is expected within the next seven days. We will provide further information on this as soon as possible,” he continued, inviting users “still having problems” to get in touch.

“Digerati has released over 50 different titles on console, and launches with situations like this are the exception,” he concluded. “We remain firmly committed to making further improvements to The Outbound Ghost as quickly as possible. Thank you for your patience.”

Following this update, Grindheim posted his statement on YouTube on December 8, prompting Digerati to respond with his own video. The game was also pulled from sale on Steam, presumably by Digerati after Grindheim allegedly vandalized his own game’s store page.

“I want to clarify some of the recent activity surrounding the Outbound Ghost,” said Sarah Alfieri, owner of Digerati and widow of the company’s recently deceased founder, Nick. “We’ve been largely silent for the past few days as we’ve been blindsided by sudden negativity from Conrad, the game’s developer.

“Until literally hours before the console’s launch, we had enjoyed a cooperative and mutually agreeable working relationship with Conrad and saw no indication of dissatisfaction on his part.”

The statement adds that the publisher has provided Grindheim with “substantial funds” to develop his “passion project” and in return, “he has granted us full distribution rights to the game”.

“Unfortunately, he has now wrongly told us that he is terminating our contract, even going so far as to attempt to use the tragic and sudden death of my husband as grounds for termination,” Alfieri added. “Additionally, Conrad illegally tampered with the Steam page and attempted to remove the console versions as well.

“It’s not fair to us, and it’s not fair to you.

“Our goal is to support The Outbound Ghost and has always been to support our developers. We actively try to make improvements and release fixes, and have faced repeated attempts to sabotage our efforts and smear our name. .

“Despite all of this, we still hope to reach a resolution and work together to continue supporting The Outbound Ghost with its lead developer on our side, and we want to provide you, the consumer, with the best possible version of the game you deserve.”

There have been no further updates from either party at the time of writing and in a statement to PC Gamer, Grindheim only reiterated that it is considering “appropriate legal action to resolve this situation and protect the game”.