Predictably, not everybody was thrilled when Shenmue 3 was announced as an Epic Games Store exclusive on PC (he says, underplaying it wildly). The major sticking point was in Shenmue 3 being a crowdfunded game and a Steam release being heavily suggested and expected. Steam logos were on marketing materials, Steam game keys talked about in pledge tiers, and a Shenmue 3 Steam page has been around and updated for a long time. But as of last night, when the Epic Games Store announcement was made, this suddenly changed.
Whether or not you want to use the Epic Games Store is one thing, but another issue is the underlying trust in a developer which suddenly pivots like this. And trust was shaken further when Ys Net and Deep Silver, the publisher, refused to offer people refunds on their Kickstarter pledges.
"This is greedy and underhanded," one fan wrote on Kickstarter - echoing a general sentiment. "If you won't provide Steam keys than you had better offer a refund. That's what decent campaigns do when they drop a platform."