Armchair Dragoons Forums

News:

  • Connections Online 2024 will be held 15-20 April, 2024 ~~ More Info here
  • Buckeye Game Fest will be held May 2-5, 2024, with The War Room opening on 29 April ~~ More Info here

News

Buckeye Game Fest will be held May 2-5, 2024, with The War Room opening on 29 April ~~ More Info here

Author Topic: Sovereignty: Crown of Kings no longer available for purchase  (Read 3378 times)

Martok

  • Patreon Supporters
  • Lance Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 6771
  • Tilting at windmills
I first saw the news/announcement on Steam, but the game has also been pulled from GOG and GamersGate, as well as Matrix/Slitherine's own storefronts.  (The blurb says "in a few days", but the game has already been removed.) 


https://steamcommunity.com/games/312430/announcements/detail/3056222849545242357


Quote
Sovereignty - Removal from sale and discontinued support


In a few days it won't be possible to purchase Sovereignty anymore.

Unfortunately, we are forced to cease support for the game as the developer studio which first created the game has ceased its activities and won't continue supporting the game.

Whoever has bought Sovereignty in the past will still retain it in their library and will be able to download and install it with its latest version.




The news isn't particularly surprising, but it does make me a little sad. 



"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart

"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike


Staggerwing

  • Patreon Supporters
  • Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 4362
Reply #1 on: January 14, 2021, 09:34:10 PM
What happened?

Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa


Martok

  • Patreon Supporters
  • Lance Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 6771
  • Tilting at windmills
Reply #2 on: January 15, 2021, 03:37:16 AM
To be honest, I'm not sure.  The more I look into this announcement, the less sense it seems to make. 



Slitherine states they're pulling the game because the developer shut down, and are no longer offering support.  However... 

1.)  The last patch was released all the way back in June 2018, a good 2+ years ago.  (Believe me, if a more recent update had dropped, I'd be shouting it from the rooftops. :P )  So it appears that, for all intents and purposes, support for Sovereignty had already ended some time ago. 

2.)  On top of that, according to this post by one of the devs, Gothic Labs had already ceased operations in 2019.  When contrasted with Slitherine's announcement -- which implies the dev studio only recently shut down -- it's a bit baffling, to say the least. 




All that, combined with the unusual act of making the game no longer for sale (not even on their own storefronts) -- despite the fact that there are plenty of other old, unsupported games still available in Slitherine/Matrix's catalogue -- makes me wonder if there isn't more to this story.  ??? 


« Last Edit: January 15, 2021, 03:41:21 AM by Martok »

"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart

"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike


Staggerwing

  • Patreon Supporters
  • Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 4362
Reply #3 on: January 15, 2021, 06:34:57 AM
Maybe someone with claims to the IP has made a legal challenge against S&M selling the game and they figured it wasn't worth the bother sales-wise.

Vituð ér enn - eða hvat?  -Voluspa


bbmike

  • Warrant Officer
  • Lance Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 7444
    • My Own Worst Enemy
Reply #4 on: January 15, 2021, 09:08:37 AM
Yeah, I mean aren't there a ton of games on Steam that are no longer supported? Sounds like something else.

"My life is spent in one long effort to escape from the commonplace of existence."
-Sherlock Holmes

My Own Worst Enemy


Steelie

  • Corporal
  • **
  • Posts: 1036
Reply #5 on: January 15, 2021, 10:20:20 AM
Definitely odd. I have 117 hours playtime but haven't played it in quite some time. I had been waiting for an update but basically wrote it off as abandonware. Playable game as is, but could have been much, much more.

Somewhere, somehow, I woke up in the wrong timeline. I'm pretty sure this isn't even my dimension.


Martok

  • Patreon Supporters
  • Lance Sergeant
  • *
  • Posts: 6771
  • Tilting at windmills
Reply #6 on: January 15, 2021, 05:01:16 PM
Maybe someone with claims to the IP has made a legal challenge against S&M selling the game and they figured it wasn't worth the bother sales-wise.

The thought had crossed my mind. 


I'm also wondering if it wasn't actually the devs themselves who requested the game be pulled.  Given that a lot of the more (relatively) recent threads in both the Steam and M/S forums have been about how the game is incomplete and/or has been abandoned, they may have felt that making Sovereignty no longer available for sale was the least they could do.  And since the game probably wasn't selling anyway, Slitherine saw little harm in granting the request(?). 

I'm not sure I really buy that scenario (or something similar), but then we've seen stranger things around here. 




Yeah, I mean aren't there a ton of games on Steam that are no longer supported? Sounds like something else.

Exactly.  To me, the whole thing kinda feels like Slitherine trying to turn this into a PR opportunity.  ("Look at us!  We actually pull buggy/incomplete games that are no longer supported!  See how responsible we are!")  ::) 




Definitely odd. I have 117 hours playtime but haven't played it in quite some time. I had been waiting for an update but basically wrote it off as abandonware. Playable game as is, but could have been much, much more.

Fully agreed, Steelie.  Sovereignty was definitely one of those games with a ton of potential, but that ultimately couldn't fulfill it.  :( 

I imagine we can chalk it up to the devs biting off way more than they could chew.  I did love their vision, though... 



"I like big maps and I cannot lie." - Barthheart

"I drastically overpaid for this existence." - bbmike