Wow that sucks because desura looked like a reasonable alternative to steam (if you couldnt get on steam). Well its steam or nothing, at least dont use desura, some devs didnt get paid for 8 months – unacceptable.
http://www.gamersnexus.net/gg/1961-desura-fails-to-pay-indie-game-developers
Paying the little guys is a pretty important business principle. The big accounts might be willing to negotiate for delayed payment. But the hundreds of little accounts would prefer to go to the press.
That’s a pretty terrible story, and the bad PR created by this will just go on to hurt those same devs even further. Seems like a bad situation.
Hope the problem will be solved. I feel bad for Desura a little. Nobody knows what issues they have. I mean they can’t just run away with devs’ money.
Man that sucks. Sounds like those paid mobile ads company shenanigans that were flooding the forum a while back.
Crazy stuff especially considering I buy most of my games through Desura and GOG. Who’d have thought the devs were not getting any of the money?! I am surprised this news didn’t come out about 5 months ago.
Even if the announcement is completely true, it still means developers should avoid Desura. Requiring the CEO to personally sign off on each payment and not having any automated payment system in place is very suspect sounding. There is something very wrong with the story. It makes me wonder if maybe Desura has a huge cash flow problem and this is just a cover story for that.
I guess on the plus side, Desura payments are worth so little I doubt anyone is starving as a result of not getting their check. 
(Partially kidding here).
Frankly there’s no excuse for this behavior. I don’t buy the PR story in the slightest. They screwed up and since they have such a low value per game, as a whole, I wouldn’t be surprised if people just began pulling titles/ignoring them. It isn’t worth the risk.when Steam simply delivers a better experience and has a great reputation. Despite my usual championing of David vs. Goliath and my total dislike of Greenlight vs. Curation they’re still simply giving a better user and developer support experience.
GOG is friendly but more oldschool (less automated), though they’re trying to change that to keep up with Steam and I hope they do so without sacrificing that personal touch… but yeah. Desura… I’d avoid them for years as a result of this.
Well I will still buy games there unless they close up shop. It seems likely payments will be made just a matter of time. Having been with many small companies in the past the description sounds quite accurate for what happens when a small mom & pop business achieves success faster than it expected and is not prepared to deal with it. Certainly payments should not need to be manually reviewed unless they have an entire team dedicated full-time to that. Even then it will only work for so long and if they want to grow they need to switch to an automated system. Of course, if it ends up being deliberate and involving something illegal I will have to reconsider my view of continuing to buy from them.
That’s what it sounds like to me too based on the fact the CEO is supposed to be signing the checks. They simply did not take rapid growth into consideration. Given the success of Steam they likely thought it wouldn’t happen.
Or it’s asymmetrical growth. Lots of developers trying to sell stuff, but not enough people buying it to cover support costs. Making a payment to a developer will be roughly the same effort whether they’re owed $10 or $10,000. It could be that with their (lack of) systems their payment backlog is growing more quickly than they can make payments.
Being purchased might also be a spanner in the works in regards to getting an automated system in place, as ownership transitions typically make that kind of decision take far longer to make and implement.
That is beyond ridiculous. They’re stalling and giving excuses, instead of getting things done. They can bothered to collect the money, but can’t be bothered to pay it out when they owe. They play the ‘little company’ card, completely ignoring that most of the people they’re hurting are as small or smaller than they are.
To say that you didn’t automate things because you’re a small company, and then let things get 8-9 months in arrears is just ridiculous. If you can’t figure out that you need to automate things in that time, you simply aren’t watching your own business. But I don’t believe any sane business could get in that situation accidentally.
I have confirmed that CapitalJMedia at least did get paid recently… but obviously only after this story went ‘viral’ of sorts… Doesnt give me much confidence in them.
and all the money I bet
I guess theres still itch.io
This thread is hating on a company for doing something they cannot do. Even if Dasura gets a 30% cut from sales, the company has employees to pay and servers to maintain. Sure, they could’ve fired heir employees but at what cost? That would certainly doom the company of future developments and possibly destroy the current infrastructure. For them, I think this is an all or nothing scenario.
The article about Desura’s bankruptcy movra posted was crap but if they are struggling, I really hope they pull through.
Crap?
Do you mean you think/know it’s a baseless rumor? It’s not the only site reporting it:
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/245334/Desuras_parent_company_has_filed_for_bankruptcy.php
http://www.pcgamer.com/desura-and-indie-royale-parent-company-files-for-bankruptcy/
http://www.polygon.com/2015/6/5/8736595/desuras-parent-company-files-for-bankruptcy-ceo-remains-silent
http://www.pcgamesn.com/bad-juju-indeed-desuras-parent-company-files-for-bankruptcy
Or do you mean it’s bad news?
GOG, Humble Bundle, and the Mac App Store for Mac games.
–Eric
The Gamsultra article was great. It provides clear, concise quotes from credible sources, written by a credible source. Unfortunately, it convinced me that the bankruptcy is not a baseless rumor :'(.