Last week, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered made its debut on Xbox and PC after getting a surprise launch (otherwise known as a "shadow drop") following heavy rumours in the weeks prior.
Unfortunately, this affected multiple indie teams who had already decided to launch their Xbox games around that date, including publisher Raw Fury - whose puzzle horror game Post Trauma literally landed on the same day.
Following this, Raw Fury's founder took to social media to explain that although they're a massive fan of Oblivion and excited that the remaster exists, Xbox's decision to shadow drop the title ultimately caused a problem for the company:
"I loved (when younger) and still absolutely love Oblivion and I’m personally excited to see it get a breath of new life and being introduced to a whole new generation of players.
From the perspective of indies and indie publishers, this is the problem with these sort of massive shadow drops. Everything more or least gets buried. We don’t have the cash nor muscle to throw around, so everything is carefully planned. Including when to release, based on other releases etc - to try to maximize the chances of getting attention.
Love the game that dropped but feel the pain for our team and especially the developer we’ve worked with for years - who has poured his heart and soul into his game."
Humourously, Raw Fury has now decided to host a spiritual re-release of Post Trauma on June 23rd:
The company's founder has unfortunately come in for some criticism on social media for their comments, with people pointing out that Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 still did fine out of it, but we definitely sympathise with the situation.
After all, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 already had a decent amount of hype, and the incredible reviews / Xbox Game Pass launch meant that it was able to achieve the level of success that it has. Some of the lesser-known indies like Post Trauma were in for a tough ride already, and Oblivion Remastered made things even harder.
Anyway, we'll drop that Post Trauma trailer down below if you're interested, and we're keen to hear what you think about Xbox shadow drops and how they impact the rest of the industry. Let us know down in the comments!