Desura is bankrupt

[m0ds]

You barely even needed to get out of bed the other day until being hit by the barrage of news that Desura is bankrupt:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/245334/Desuras_parent_company_has_filed_for_bankruptcy.php
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/06/05/desura-bankruptcy-bad-juju-games/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-06-05-desura-and-indie-royales-parent-company-has-filed-for-bankruptcy
http://www.pcgamer.com/desura-and-indie-royale-parent-company-files-for-bankruptcy/

I've been thinking about writing a thread about Desura for a good year and a bit now, shame really that it has to be this one! Just some personal thoughts on the situation and my experience there as it's in the spotlight, some positive some negative as we are left waiting to find out its fate. Whilst the thread title may be a little misleading as the situation is more "Bad JuJu" is bankrupt than Desura itself is, the situation still involves and revolves around Desura itself.

I joined Desura in late 2012 for The Cat Lady release and back then it was a smooth, well run operation. Desura played a vital role in the success of The Cat Lady, no doubt about that, for which will be ever thankful! But unfortunately, perhaps a year later it began to seem like we had jumped on a derailing train.

My suspicions started when Desura was taken over by Linden Labs back in either late 2013 or early 2014. I can't say for sure because this was the first step of their demise. They didn't tell anyone about the acquisition especially not the people who sell games through them, a lot of us found out "at some point" that oh, now Desura is owned by a completely different tribe. The people behind often quoted but what the fuck is it "Second Life". It's nothing to do with gaming is what it is.

So you had this sense that a company with no track record in gaming takes over Desura can't be a good thing. And within 6 months or so, they had backed out and sold it to the original owners, Bad Juju. Although Linden's involvement was a bit 'huh?' they didn't do anything particularly wrong or bad, the site stayed functional, the payments continued without any real hassle. But it certainly seemed like the userbase had peaked and wasn't growing, and over 2014 our sales went from 300 dollars a month to 30 dollars a quarter. That could just be because the game had been out a while yes but...

From Linden onwards, there was just no engagement with their own community at all. Neither Linden or Bad Juju seemed to want to put the people supplying them with games first. Linden didn't do any notable promotions, from what I can tell very little promotion of Desura platform itself, and when Bad Juju came back they hammered even more nails into the coffin by focussing their efforts on Indie Royale - a freakin' bundle. They had payment issues late 2014, which were resolved for me personally quickly, and I had hoped they would then be able to strengthen their position and move on, as it would seem a bunch of their staff thought was happening - until the other day of course.

I don't claim to know anything about debts or such. But it was actually our involvement with Indie Royale that brought to my attention all the issues surrounding Desura. We were in an I R bundle Oct or so of 2014, and were still waiting for payment come February 2015. It was at that point that I learned myself that Indie Royale and Desura were effectively one and the same. And now I'm thinking no wonder you've made yourself bankrupt if your going to try and branch out and completely ignore your main purpose - to sell games at Desura.com. No-ones heard of the Desura summer sale or any gimmick, cos certainly in the last 2 years there haven't been any.

Personally sorry for where it has led, because I spoke to CEO Mr Novak on some occasions and he seemed like the positive type that could lead them through their issues. The last email I got from Desura's CEO though, was about a new bundle. In my mind, the reasons places like GOG and Steam are successful, is because they put much time and effort into their core purposes. GOG is a website to buy DRM-free games, so it is optomized for that and is constantly 'fresh' and they as a company are engadged with the front end of their business.

From 2014 onwards, that was not the case for Desura owners. Desura the client and Desura the website focus dissipated. So I had been saying to some people since early 2014 that Desura is going to die soon, and nearly pulled all our games end of the year. It was ONLY cos I got mail from the CEO with some explanations that I kept them there. It's been a sinking ship for a couple of years now and we're still aboard it. I'm not really sure why other than to see things through a little further than the captain of Costa Concordia...

But I'm not here "laughing" at the situation, I always felt there was good things to be done there. I was always impressed by their willingness to include AGS games, including free ones, and it was (or is) about the only client out there that has a dedicated group for AGS games, or something. Well it did when I last looked in 2014... The post I was going to make a year or so ago would've been to recommend people to use Desura, because it is such an easy system to use that gives you full control over sales, keys, everything really, unlike Steam where everything requires approval or falling within a certain set of 'Valve' parameters. This isn't a bad thing, but for people who simply make games and want to put them somewhere (and maybe make a dollar or two) but not the hassle of publishing etc, Desura was always a great step.

Now I suppose those positive thoughts about Desura have outright flat-lined. A bankruptcy filing a week ago, and once again no news for the developers. And it wasn't just acquisitions and bankruptcy, just about anything that happened with Desura was never shared with the developers, the suppliers of the things they profit from. Their payment problems began in Oct-Nov 2014 and they only addressed it publically in May 2015. When gog or Valve have changes going on of even minor kind, you are emailed and invited to share feedback. Nothing like that ever existed with Desura so what did they honestly expect?

So to summarize, I'm really sorry for you Desura, but it's been pretty clear to everyone else bar Desura that it is a dying thing for a good 2 years now. And in true Desura fashion, when it does go tits up, the developers are the last to be informed.

If they cut the bundle shit out and perhaps even did away with the client and just became a direct DRM-free competition site against GOG but aimed at indies, I think they could secure at least some future. They don't have long to do that though before itch.io takes over. If I had the money I would buy them out and do exactly that - because they have a good amount of games and as I say the way you put games on their service etc is quite good and worth keeping a hold of. But I think it's abundantly clear that whatever paths they've been taking in the last 1-2 years have been ultimately disastrous, and they need to find a new route - one that isn't summed up in any shape or form with the word "bundle".

As someone said elsewhere, filing for bankruptcy does not necessarily mean the end. This is Desura we're talking about though, so it probably does mean exactly that. But there are times businesses can get out of that situation? I'm not entirely sure if this is true or how it works.

There's also an verified rumor that Desura is basically just a couple of servers somewhere now, because all the staff were fired and Novak himself has been ill or such. So it could very well be that it's simply running off automation at the moment (the site still works, and I've been able to update pages/set sales etc). But people like myself with a few games there are keeping a close eye on the situation. Dave G already stopped putting WEG games on Desura but that wasn't to do with payment problems etc more to do with Desura having a small customer base, if I remember rightly. But since he told me I could see why not distributing via Desura was as appealing as actually distributing through them.

If you haven't already, I'd recommend grabbing your Steam keys and backing up any DRM-free games you have there ASAP!
Just log in and hover over titles for keys (where applicable) at http://www.desura.com/collection

So what are your thoughts? "I don't use Desura" doesn't count... you lose 1 x "Mods wants to read your reply" point if you write that How would you save Desura? Should it be saved? Are you an affected developer (although this doesn't strictly apply yet as it isn't "official")?

It will be a shame to see Desura go, we had some good times and it had some good things going for it! Maybe it will be merged or bought by another service. Will anyone want to take it on again, for the third time in 2 years? But I'd be lying if I didn't admit it will also be a bit of a blessing to finally be free of the unloved burden that is currently Desura.

Here's an info graphic that explains the health of certain distributors over the last few years...


Hope it won't result in no Desura and a bunch of unemployed people cos whatever my feelings that is just unfair! But for them and for us "where will that leave us" is worth keeping aside and focusing on "where will that lead us" a far better way forward if the worst does come to worst.

Edit:
Added 17th June. GOG users have found chapter 7 bankruptcy PDFs (Desura's worth, debts etc)

Spoiler

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[ThreeOhFour]

Interesting to see your thoughts, Mark. I had not heard much about Desura recently until this happened - as I said to someone else, I'd forgotten about Desura until Desura stopped existing (not quite true, I know! ) but it's a shame to see a site that a lot of fellow indies really did well from (I know Theo from Skygoblin used to love working with them before the takeover, not sure about now).

I think there's a couple of things that might have contributed. Steam and GOG opening up their doors to more indie games means that people can now just go to their favourite site for the game they want, rather than a specific store. itch.io seems to be more friendly to indie developers, and Humble store have a widget that allows devs to sell easily on their own websites. The middle ground that Desura used to fill; the "Commercial indie games that people want on a storefront but can't get into the Steam and GOG stores" has gotten a lot smaller. As you say, no doubt a lot could have been done to counteract this, but with some of the opaqueness that seems to have risen, and the wall of no communication between the service and their clients (developers and publishers more than paying customers), it's hard to see people willing to use Desura when there's a ton of other places to sell your games out there that haven't been as cryptic.

Really does feel like a little bit of a blow for the indie scene, though, because a lot of games still get lost in Steam when even much bigger indies than the likes of us get 17 minutes on the front page before getting pushed off, and having sites that really want to work with smaller developers is super nice.

[SilverSpook]

Hm... I have an IndieDB site, hopefully nothing bad happens...

[KodiakBehr]

Really does feel like a little bit of a blow for the indie scene, though, because a lot of games still get lost in Steam when even much bigger indies than the likes of us get 17 minutes on the front page before getting pushed off, and having sites that really want to work with smaller developers is super nice.

Not to mention the newly-minted Steam return policy forcing developers to start implementing DRM and giving consideration to game-length and replayability, rather than just making the game they want to make.

[LimpingFish]

Not to mention the newly-minted Steam return policy forcing developers to start implementing DRM and giving consideration to game-length and replayability, rather than just making the game they want to make.

I think any dev worried about refunds impacting their profits should watch this video. It contains some interesting dev opinions.

[KodiakBehr]

I must admit, the developers crying foul at this point are the same in every article on the subject, and the video raises some excellent points.  I'm generally okay with anything this pro-consumer.

Back on topic, my plan is to migrate Conspirocracy from Desura to somewhere it can be made available for free.

KB

[CaptainD]

I must admit, the developers crying foul at this point are the same in every article on the subject, and the video raises some excellent points.  I'm generally okay with anything this pro-consumer.

Back on topic, my plan is to migrate Conspirocracy from Desura to somewhere it can be made available for free.

KB

I'd suggest Itch.io - you can make it free or sell it, completely up to you.

On the Desura front... I think it's quite a big loss to the indie community.  In particular, their "Alpha Funding" idea was pretty innovative at the time.

[Mouth for war]

We should all join forces and create the best indie site where you could sell your games with ease...All damn sites where you want to sell your creations makes it a  f*****g hassle...Millions of things you have to do...what happened to just upload your game...put a paypalbutton next to your game and "Bing bada boom boom BOOOM" all set!!! (In my utopia it should work like that)

[m0ds]

Thanks Ben, and others - a shame indeed! As internet things do and as CaptainD says it looks like platforms elsewhere are rising. But you're right there's no denying the power of the key players here. I'm not sure if the local element to some places (ie Gamers Gate is a very Swedish (?) orientated thing, Zodiac a very Italian one) keeps them strong. Desura, essentially an Australian outfit, then became American based however they never really played on their identity like Zodiac and Gamers Gate do, which may also have contributed - Desura wanted to be a global player but looks like that may not have been the best route.

The first post is updated with a link at the bottom to all the juicy details of the chapter 7 bankruptcy that GOG users found. What do you make of it? The impression I got is that they own enough in assets to clear these problems/debts? But I'm not an expert. So not sure whether to stick around or pull stuff and run - of course you don't want to upset the customers but if the company/site is in total limbo at the moment (with the employees all gone and the site being run by no-one but automation) then what to do?

[InCreator]

I'd suggest Itch.io - you can make it free or sell it, completely up to you.

On the Desura front... I think it's quite a big loss to the indie community.  In particular, their "Alpha Funding" idea was pretty innovative at the time.

Itch.io is perfect example why we don't really need Desura and why it's not all that big of a loss. Desura was cramped, too strict and outdated. Plus, it duplicated Steam, while Steam is already booming with indie titles.