ciemnogrodzianin: Do I understand correctly that they declared Linux port, have not delivered and refused a refund??
A native Linux release was promised as a reward for reaching a certain funding level on the initial Kickstarter campaign. They ended up saying "Because 'middleware problems', we can make Playstation (BSD with proprietary stuff on top) and Switch (even more alien OS) releases, but not a native Linux release and we can't refund you because we already spent
that money".
Basically, "Oh, we're running on money 505 fronted us to finish the project now. We can't refund you from that." ...and, given where the big portability problems for Linux usually come from, and how rare it is to find middleware that supports every platform they released for except Linux, that claim is very questionable.
(If we shafted backers had taken them to court, we'd probably have won, because that "Oh, this is different money. We can't refund you from this." claim is an old fraud tactic that the courts take a dim view of... usually responding with "OK, then, liquidate assets to free up the money. Sell off the Boodstained IP if you have to. You can't get out of your contractual obligations that easily.")
Kickstarter's ToS acknowledges the potential for campaign failure, but being that vague and uncooperative violates their terms for what you have to do if a promised reward can't be delivered.
Their terms were basically "An enthusiast showed that it runs perfectly under Proton or you can open a ticket before such and such a date to have your digital copy upgraded to a physical copy of a console release that you can then sell off to recover the money. Take it or leave it."
I don't own any consoles newer than an original Wii and didn't want to gamble on what I could get for a copy on the resale market, so I just stayed on track for the GOG key and added all involved parties to my boycott list instead. By now, I think I've almost matched how much I pledged in total amount I would have spent on GOG games but haven't because the games in question are published by 505... and the names Kickstarter, 505 Games, ArtPlay, DICO, Wayforward Technologies, and Koji "IGA" Igarashi are now mud to me.
(I'm still torn on whether to also blacklist Inti Creates for creating the "We never actually explicitly promised that would be DRM-free too" spin-off (Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon) which I redeemed the Steam key for as proof of purchase, but will turn to BitTorrent for if I ever decide to play it.)
Given what I've heard about Japanese game industry attitudes toward
Linux and DRM, it's all one big "this is why you never trust a Japanese game developer's crowdfunding campaign" lesson.
