In an interview with Techland, the studio behind Arise: A Simple Story, we had a discussion on the accessibility of the game itself. This included how it’s on the PC and PlayStation 4 with the potential of even being on the Nintendo Switch later down the line. In regards to the PC market for the game, Techland confirmed that Arise will remain an Epic Games Store exclusive for 12 months, equating to a year.
This is similar to how Borderlands 3 treated its initial exclusivity. The initial six months of the game being spent on the Epic Games Store as an exclusive as well. We know that Randy Pitchford, CEO of Gearbox, was an advocate of the Epic Games store itself, hence the notion of spending six months there.
What about Arise, however? Techland did respond by first off saying that they didn’t think PC gaming needed any kind of saving right now. This was in reference to the slight hysteria caused in the PC gaming community when Epic Games started taking exclusivity of all their favorite titles. In fact, Techland does support the notion that competition can be quite healthy for PC gaming.
Here’s the exact statement we got from Techland regarding the PC store landscape in our current times:
“I didn’t know PC gaming needed to be saved! Actually I think PC gaming is very healthy, and the different stores out there have been doing a great job. There’s less piracy than a decade ago, and more people buying more games in more stores. That sounds pretty good to me. Competition is what drives innovation and progress. The more stores we have, and the more competition there is between them, ultimately results in a better service for consumers in the long term.From our perspective, the success of Epic would induce changes in other stores, improving the conditions for the developers, will in turn produce better games, so we all win at the end. Arise: A Simple Story will be an Epic Exclusive for 12 months.”
In case you haven’t heard already, Arise: A Simple Story is an upcoming adventure platform game with delightful Ghibli like graphics. The game combines story telling, puzzle solving, platforming and time manipulation in a single package. Arise is going to be releasing on the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC as an Epic Games Store Exclusive for a year.