With the release of BioShock 1/2 Remasters and Darksiders Remaster, PC gamers expected the upcoming release of the Bulletstorm Remaster to be available for free. However, that won’t be the case here. According to Gearbox, Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition will be a full-priced game on the PC, and Randy Pitchford explained why.
As Pitchford claimed, it is impossible to offer this remastered version of Bulletstorm for free to all existing owners of Bulletstorm as the games are being released by different publishers for different platforms. Not only that, but Gearbox does not own the rights for Bulletstorm, something that – according to Pitchford – prevents them for giving it away for free.
Not possible – completely different publisher, era, platform (they were Games for Windows only), product/sku, etc.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) December 2, 2016
Naturally, some gamers mentioned Darksiders’ remaster to Pitchford, who then explained that THQ Nordic was able to offer it for free because it had already acquired the rights of Darksiders. Gearbox, on the other hand, is simply publishing Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition, and does not own the rights of the franchise.
Nordic bought entire rights past-future from a defunct publisher. This is a very different situation.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) December 3, 2016
Different situation. Nordic bought all past-future rights of that. We don't own any of this – just helping PCF.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) December 3, 2016
In case you’re wondering, People Can Fly owns the rights of Bulletstorm.
People Can Fly own Bulletstorm. We are excited to help them reach their audience through publishing.
— Randy Pitchford (@DuvalMagic) December 3, 2016
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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“Gearbox does not own the rights for Bulletstorm, something that – according to Pitchford – prevents them for giving it away for free.”
Something something duke nukem. Randy, retire, just retire.
Randy Pitchford explains Bulletstorm: Full Clip Edition is a ripoff re-release
Now we have “Bulletstorm EA” and “Bulletstorm Gearbox”.
Yeah, yeah remaster, additional stuff yadda yadda, I just don’t want to see games/IPs “lost” to legal stuff anymore.
Lest we forget NOFL. :/
Also, Randy, if you just kept you gobshite mouth shut. -_-)’
It is a full priced re-release of a game people bought years ago (and it was sort of a flop), don’t try to justify it, you git.
RIP NOLF 🙁 https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/7b24e1481c5f5c37ef57f701b05b93f0937b2371d56dd1aab5719b7b6668d17b.png
We really could have done with more of Kate Archer.
I miss her so much…
“Yeah, yeah remaster, additional stuff yadda yadda”
That’s not what Randy said though. He was asked why the remaster wasn’t free and he replied that it wasn’t because they didn’t own the IP.
Simply hating Randy for the heck of it is pretty strange.
The first part of my comment isn’t directed at Randy, only the second part is.
I see. I didn’t figure the first part’s context was different from the second’s.
To be fair, I talk bollocks most of my time around here. 😀
Heh I don’t mind. It’s the ones who don’t talk sense yet claim they do that worry me.
I can accept not being about to offer it free/discounted, but 50 f*cking dollars?! Have you seen the screenshots?
There’s a neat thing you can do aside from become a sh*ty P*rate. Don’t buy this, buy the original for 5$ or even less at various retailers. Problem solved.
Yeah, but being a “sh*tty pirate” just feels so much better, since a shallow f*ck like Ripoff Pitchforks here would probably be scouring the download lists for days to see how many people he can whine about……
Especially right now, when one of the greediest-f*ck companies in the world just offered their own “remaster” for free to the PC crowd (ZeniMax-Bethesda, Skyrim Special Edition), while Greedbox Software tries to price theirs on the same tier as a brand-new full-size AAA release.
Schiller has had a rough life. He sailed to the Americas with nothing but a potato on his back. Little did he know that a pirate ship call the Johnny Deep would take him prisoner. They did terrible thinks to him; they forced him to watch the download percentage for 300Gigabytes of games. After that he wasn’t the same. Every time he watches the Muppet’s Treasure Island his ptsd kicks in.
Not exactly sure why you decided to do a personal attack on me but whatever. Did you feel personally offended by my comment?
@Zatara I wouldn’t buy a gearbox game even if it would be the last thing to do. But I like the folks of PCF and I already own Bulletstorm on Origin. It’s a great game.
@mariusurucu:disqus What’s wrong with Origin? I currently own 60 games on Origin and never had a single problem with it. Also the support is fantastic (They gave me digital copies of Battlefield 1942 + addons and Battlefield 2 Complete because I still had the CD Keys.) And EA has a better refund policy than Valve. Also free games every now and then.
It’s more of a principle thing. There’s nothing wrong with it as a store, it’s just… EA. Season passes, cutdown content sold as DLC and remember that fiasco with Myanmar… I do.
Also, the refund policy doesn’t work with paysafecard and I don’t think they even accept paysafecard so… yeah. I have a credit card FYI but I use it to receive some cash on it and nothing more…
Wow… what a revolutionary! I say that you should be ranked up their with Che and Fidel… Fight the good fight man! Down with the OPPRESSORS! :
What are you even on about? Are you low-key making fun of me? :))
I just spoke my mind, nothing more. I’m not preaching anything here, I even said Origin as a store is fine… Can’t handle the (probably flawed) opinion of a random guy on the Internet? Or are you jelly that I actually got upvotes on said flawed opinion? :3
Nothing personal, kid.
@aizenawakened:disqus Hahahhahahahhahaha, thank you for that comment! Had me laughing for a good while! 😀
How do you even come up with this stuff. XD
Cocaine.
Don’t think Bethesda were doing PC gamers a favour there.
They knew most PC owners would never pay for the remaster at any price.
When modded old one, was better.
They calculated, that giving mod creators the game, would get them more console mods, and that selling the console version at full price, with many more mods available, would make the most profit.
As for Pitchford’s crap, so what, if Gearbox don’t own the rights, that just means the rights holders have to agree, as well.
It doesn’t mean it can’t be done.
I fully agree, though I’m not entirely sure about the EA bit at the end. Personally I think they just need to ask Valve to figure out what accounts have the original Bulletstorm game, & then just piggyback the Full Clip version onto those, but maybe that’s just me.
After all, Darksiders, Bioshock, Skyrim etc. were auto-added to our accounts, so it seems logical to figure Valve has some way of isolating specific accounts, no?
Regardless, yeah, it probably was given away for free because they figured the PC version would sell like sh*t anyway, & it probably was a calculated move to push up console modding etc. but still, they could have done it regardless. Sure, it would have been a dumb move, but then again, AAA publishers routinely make retard-level decisions, so, nothing new there exactly…… 😛
Who mentioned EA, the rights holder is People Can Fly, not EA.
So both they, and Gearbox (Publisher), must agree to give original owners the remaster, it complicates things, but doesn’t make it impossible, as Pitchford claims.
The mechanism to identify the original owners, isn’t claimed to be an issue.
If it was a Steam only release, as you imply, it’s not a problem.
Sorry, should have been clearer, was in a hurry earlier;
EA continues to own the publishing rights to the original release, I believe, which is (supposedly) the root of the issue here according to Ripoff Randy; unlike how Nordic bought out THQ & the entire Darksiders IP, People Can Fly continues to own the Bulletstorm IP, as they always have, yes, but since neither PFC nor Greedbox bought EA out of its publishing contract for Bulletstorm OG, the publisher for the original release remains unchanged, which (allegedly) blocks them from distributing the Full Clip remaster for free.
(Considering EA’s Partners Program, I’m guessing they own the rights to the original release outright, in perpetuity, much as they seemingly do the publishing rights for Crysis, which makes me wonder how exactly Greedbox & PFC got their hands on them – remaster or not – but that’s a separate thing, I suppose.)
For the record, I agree, EA has nothing to do with this, but that’s not what Randy Ripoff is implying. See what the little sociopath said;
“Not possible – completely different publisher, era, platform (they were Games for Windows only), product/sku, etc.”
“Nordic bought entire rights past-future from a defunct publisher. This is a very different situation.”
“Different situation. Nordic bought all past-future rights of that. We don’t own any of this – just helping PCF.”
Except I highly doubt People Can Fly is the issue here, just as I also highly doubt EA gives a flying f*ck about Bulletstorm OG anymore, so they’re not the problem here either, regardless of the fact that they’re still Bulletstorm OG’s publisher, & as such continue to make a profit off of whatever sales it generates these days, whether it’s physical, on Steam, on Origin, or whatever the hell else it’s sold on.
As such, all of this really seems to stem from the simple fact that Randy Ripoff & Greedbox are trying to use the excuse that EA still owns the rights to the original IP to justify not handing out a free version to PC owners, which, needless to say, is really nothing but downright bullsh*t, of course.
Personally, I seriously doubt they require EA’s permission to do sh*t, but that is what Randy Ripoff seems to be hinting at.
Darksiders is free on GOG, as with all games I own, I buy the GOG release, when it appears, even if I own it on Steam, I then remove the Steam copy.
For me it’s about getting a game installer, and removing online clients, requirements, though DRM free is best for modding, that’s always the case on GOG.
EA’s rights are not violated, by checking for a valid owner, and with Steam simply making your library public, would be enough proof.
Even a non steam CD key locked game could be checked by providing the key for checking, which doesn’t require EA involvment, but that costs extra money, where an automatic Steam check already exists, for many games.
Exactly ^^
I love your sheer dedication on this board sir! Good riddance!
I’ve got a few more, but yeah, DSOG is one of those “last bastion” type places that don’t blindly praise the “Publisher Overlords” (yet)….. 😛
100& agree sir! This place is special to me.
I didn’t actually play Bulletstorm, so yeah I might actually just buy the original. Too bad it’s on Origin only…
Na there’s a Steam version, but it costs $20, so…….
Yeah.
I can’t find it… Really, I can’t find it, only the full clip edition…
On G2A I saw the Origin CD Key sold for about 4.20 euros (smoke weed everyday).Since paysafecard gives G2A giftcards for each recharge, I can use just that.
I know there is a controversy with G2A, cut me some slack, I come from a 3rd world country, I just finished college, applied resumes left and right while looking for a job and busting my head against a wall while studying for some exams (and sometimes slacking…).
/app/99810/
Nothing? If not, then it’s a geo-lock thing. Wouldn’t be the first time either, unfortunately >.<
No worries, I've snagged some sh*tty games at steep discounts off the grey market myself more than once. You pay what's worth, & of course, what you can, not what some sociopath like this idiot here expects you to pay "because."
Found Global Steam CD keys sold at G2A for BulletStorm at 9.40 euros and up… more than double the price… But you can’t actually find it on Steam.
On the bright side it’s on Steam… but it costs more… hmmm… decisions, decisions. I might just get it on Origin maybe, I don’t know. Or just be a scumbag and sing the pirate song. And I still wouldn’t be anywhere near a scumbag as big Randy…
Or just pirate it, wait for the remaster to go on an 80% off sale, & buy that in a year or so, instead? 😛
I mean, we’re talking about a middle-of-the-pack FPS, in the end, not Bioshock or some such.
Well, I’ll do none of those things. I have other games in my backlog, it’s just that I heard good things about Bulletstorm but never actually played it, not even bothered pirating it, despite the fact that I could do it long ago if I wanted to.
Also I have my little Youtube channel that got a little traction. It’s not much, it’s me playing games that I like (as stylish as I can :D), but it kinda warms my heart that there are some people who like my worthless content. 🙂
My Youtube channel is the same name you see right here, because I couldn’t think of a cool name, with the same avatar. I’m not asking for likes, subs or even you to watch my videos. Just telling you it exists. :3
Yeah it’s a fun one-time play-through thing, if you like crude humour, but other than that, it’s nothing really special, & the replay value is zilch.
Yo-ho-yo-ho-a-pirate’s-life-for-me
and then denuvo send you to davy jones locker XD
The scurvy has already done that
I’d buy the original if it weren’t cancer stricken with GFWL. Just gonna wait til this one’s in a Humble Bundle and give all the money to charity.
torrent it mate.
Helping People Can Fly? I would think the PCF name is worth more then Gearbox’s crap name. I wouldn’t touch anything Gearbox anymore.
Reason : $$$$$ €€€€€€
I really hope this fails hard
$50 for a generic FPS remaster? No need to hope mate, it’s going to fail, period.
“generic FPS”
Wait! Hold on right there sir!
I cant agree on the generic FPS bc it clearly isnt but the 50$ price for a remaster is outrageous and ill agree on that one
The gameplay has some querks, sure, but the shooting mechanics are basically a Gears of War ripoff, in first person, without a cover button.
Regardless, it’s solid fun for a one-time clear, don’t get me wrong.
“basically a Gears of War ripoff, in first person, without a cover button.” Don’t forget a bunch of quicktime events. To Bulletstorm’s credit it at least had somewhat expansive environments not arenas like Gears.
Yeah man, let the biggest con artist explain why this remaster won’t be sold for free on PC, or at least at a reasonable price.
I don’t see a problem here, nope, no sirey boss…
…. And?
Is there something that obstructs them from coming to some sort of agreement with Valve to distribute the game for free to all current Steam-version Bulletstorm owners, or something?
The same applies with EA.
Now this is the exact moment when all previous owners of BStorm start cheerfully singing Yo-Ho-Ho and bottle of rum! Yarr! song.
I guess Dandy Beachpork’s reputation can’t really be damaged any more so he’s the perfect man for the BS job of vague manipulative statements in vain attempt to justify paying full price AGAIN for basically the same game.
GG Dandy.
Now sing us a song and show some magic tricks with cards at least.
Oh Randy, tell us the one again about Colonial Marines.
screw gearbox, screw randy. i hope those sjw panderers go out of business.
This is a complete steal, don’t buy it, it will only encourage them to do more stuff like this. This game should be free for those who own the game and without that GFWL c***, i have the game on origin and the only way i can play is if i put a crack to it.
Randy Pitchford and Gearbox are some of the biggest cancers in the industry, i will never give them a single dime or even bother to pirate their crap, what they did to Duke is unforgivable.
3D Realms was struggling with it, as they had been for a decade+ already, then Gearbox came along, & told them to piece something together so they could dish it out, if I remember correctly.
Yeah, 3D Realms was f*cking up the development for a long time before Gearbox even got involved, but ultimately, it was Gearbox that said “enough, get this sh*t out already, no matter what state it’s it.”
It’s like Metal Gear Solid V. MGSV seems to have gone through at least 3 major iterations; the first one was the one Kojima first teased us with, the second one was the one where Ground Zeroes & Phantom Pain were still one game, but were now powered by Fox Engine, & the 3rd iteration is the one Konami basically forced upon Kojima; break the game down into 2 parts, so that they’d see at least a partial return upon their already massive investment.
The 3rd iteration is the one the public is actually familiar with, it being the one that was actually released in the end. Unfortunately, seemingly due to the dual problem of Kojima’s falling out with Konami, & Konami being sick & tired of investing into over-bloated MG budgets, Kojima was never actually given the chance to complete The Phantom Pain, leaving the game to just trail off into nothingness story-wise (there’s ample datamining evidence of at least one more Act being planned, if not more, various plot twists, cinematics, etc.)
Sure, it’s not quite the same situation as Duke Nukem, but I take it you get my point, right?
No surprise, really. This guy is selling a new episode for Duke Nukem 3D (!) for 20 bucks.
I understand why it isnt free or reduced priced. However this is PC im sure most of us can get it on the cheap the first month of release anyway. FFS i just snagged the soon to be released Space marine game for 40% off.
I had bought this game on GFWL (on sale for like $5) but it looks like when MS plulled the plug on GFWL this game is vapour, never to be seen again.
MS didn’t pull the plug on GFWL. It’s still active and you can still play the original Bulletstorm online. Too many people are perpetuating this false rumor unfortunately.
nope the game is complelety gone when i log into GFWL, same with everything else purchased through GFWL.
I have Bulletstorm too and it plays perfectly fine. It’s hard to find matches since hardly anyone plays it, but the service itself still works and I can login and download updates as usual
Yep.