Late last year, we are talking about a disappointing move by GOG to delist well-reviewed horror PC game Devotion from its stage. Spawning it all very odd were the facts of the case that GOG had just announced that morning that the game would be available that day, as well as Devotion’s previous delisting from Steam. The rationale for the multiple delistings was never perfectly spelled out in either bag, but video games includes a reference to China’s President Xi and the never purposing joke that he resembles Winnie the Pooh. GOG, instead of being open about that being the obvious reason to delist the game, instead said here today originated the move after receiving “messages from gamers.” Groan.

Well, fortunately, this is 2021, which wants instead of the game dying on the doorstep of well-entrenched gatekeepers, make Red Candle Games can instead simply release the game itself on its own website.

After running into nothing but hassle on other people’s pulpits, the game’s makes have decided to exactly sell the game themselves, opening up an online storage for international patrons that is selling digital, DRM-free copies of Devotion, their previous tournament Detention, as well as soundtrack parcels for both.

Despite all the complaints from the industry about how the internet serves only to fill the universe in copyright violation, this is the transformative dominance of the internet. Gatekeepers that add value can still find a situate for themselves, as GOG and Steam have certainly done. But when they try to shut down the delivery of content for cowardly business reasons, well, private developers can precisely superhighway around them and sell instantly to the consumer. Honestly, it’s mostly surprising that this has happened more often in the past and become the norm.

For my own part, Red Candle Games does plan on this being the norm for them moving forward.

Hello, Red Candle e-shop is now online. https :// t.co/ smmZxHj7zQ #Fan Xiao Detention, #Huan Yuan Devotion and our future programmes will all be on e-shop in DRM-free format.

We hope to provide a direct and simple purchasing direct for musicians who’re interested in our tournaments. pic.twitter.com/ 1SxzBZSiyW

— redcandlegames (@ redcandlegames) March 15, 2021

And, really, why not? The developer has been bitten in the ass twice now when it comes to distributing through the large-scale online players, both times over the hurt feelings of a honey-mad, cartoon maybe-bear President of China. Why not just go it alone and keep from having to put up with all of this nonsense.

The bigger question is, of course, just how successful this are likely to be. If Red Candle Games can demonstrate that it can go it alone in this way, showing that routing distribution through the likes of Steam and GOG aren’t ever the best path, that could lead to more experiments like this … or a altered in the distributors behavior.

Read more: techdirt.com