Crowdfunded Outer Wilds joins growing list of Epic Games Store exclusives

The developers behind the upcoming game Outer Wilds have revealed that the PC version of the game will be exclusive to the Epic Games Store at launch, with additional platforms beyond Xbox One and the Epic Games Store to follow later on.

Epic Games has penned a number of exclusivity deals for its storefront in since the store was launched late last year, but the deal surrounding Outer Wilds is drawing additional attention since the game received early funding from a Fig crowdfunding campaign and some of its backers are less than pleased.

Other games like Borderlands 3, World War Z, and The Division 2 have made timed exclusivity arrangments with the Epic Games Store as well, but backers responding to Mobius Digital Games' announcement say that they'd pitched in on the assumption that they'd receive a Steam key when the game launched. Others point out that they planned to play the game on Linux when it released, a platform not currently supported by the Epic Games Store.

For Mobius Digital, the decision seems to be one born out of a desire to get the funding necessary to continue work in the game in the first place. The Outer Wilds Fig campaign raised $126,480 by its close in 2015, and additional partnerships have been “helpful,” writes the developer.

“Throughout the development of the game, we’ve welcomed helpful partnerships with Annapurna Interactive, Xbox, and Epic to support us and keep our small studio running long enough to ship the game at the level of quality that it is today,” reads an update on the game’s Fig campaign page. “Each of these partnerships has enabled us to make the game better and more accessible for everyone who will play it.”