Potions: A Curious Tale outrage as indie game 'buried' by EA | indy100

Potions: A Curious Tale Official Launch Trailer

Stumbling Cat

An indie game developer appeared visibly upset after a project she spent 10 years working on was 'buried' by an unannounced release of 11 classic games from major publisher Electronic Arts, known as EA.

EA is world-renowned for its games and series, such as The Sims, Need for Speed and Apex Legends, and publishes a lot of sport titles under EA Sports, such as FC 24, F1 23 and Madden.

Renee Gittens, creative director and CEO of games publisher Stumbling Cat, had been working for a decade on perfecting a game called Potions: A Curious Tale.

It's an adventure crafting game which was released on March 8, a date Renee said was carefully selected to have maximum impact on video game digital distributor Steam.

But unknown to her, and anyone else for that matter, EA decided to drop 11 classic games, such as entries from the Command and Conquer series, Dungeon Keeper series and Sim City 3000 Unlimited right on top of Renee's release.

As Steam does not publish games on weekends, Renee's plan was for it to appear on a Friday so it would get maximum traction over the weekend - but it seems EA had a similar idea.

@rikukat
Thanks, EA. In one fell swoop, you managed to bury all of my hard work on marketing Potions: A Curious Tale. #gamedev #indiedev #ea #internationalwomansday

Speaking in an emotional video posted on TikTok and Instagram, Renee said: "You know why being the game developer sucks?

"Because you work 10 years on a project, you pick a great launch date and get everyone hyped about it and build a bunch of marketing.

"And then EA can drop 11 games right after you do immediately and bump you off 'New and Trending' despite the good reviews, despite people purchasing it.

"It just completely wrecks all of your marketing."

Renee's video has received some backlash in the comments but some of the most popular ones are incredibly supportive of her.

Rain Lionheart said: "Keep promoting it, bestie! I never heard about Potions: A Curious Tale until 30 secs ago, but I am RUNNING to buy it this second."

Maximoose said: "Everyone hating probably has never working on anything as hard or as long as you have. Thank you for making cool things!"

My indie game I worked on for 10 years was immediately bumped off of New & Trending by @EA spam releasing 11 titles at once. \n\nAll of the built-up marketing and momentum squashed in an instant. \n\n#HappyInternationalWomensDay !
— (@)

Renee also Tweeted a screenshot which has since got more than 4.2m views of how Potions: A Curious Tale had been affected by the EA releases.

She also carried on the X / Twitter thread giving context to what happened.

@EA Thank you all so much. \ud83d\udc9c
— (@)

While there were some negative comments on the post, most replies to this Tweet were supportive, with a number of X / Twitter users saying they had bought the game.

@RikuKat @EA I bought it this morning!
— (@)

@RikuKat @EA Just picked it up \ud83d\udc9c\ud83d\udc9c\ud83d\udc9c\ud83d\udc9c can\u2019t wait to play it on stream
— (@)

@RikuKat @EA Picked it up yesterday n am slowly getting through, trying to get the stuff for babayagas broom atm, it's been good so far, I'm liking the occasional puzzle around the place
— (@)

@RikuKat @EA Really love this. My daughter is 3 and I think about things like this a lot. You just guaranteed yourself a purchase if/when it comes to Xbox and I\u2019ll wishlist on Steam for now. Thank you
— (@)

@RikuKat @EA I bought two earlier: one for me and one for an online acquaintance! \ud83d\ude04\u2764\ufe0f
— (@)

EA was approached for comment by indy100.

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