Blade Runner Remake Mess Continues With Shopfront Switcheroo [Update]

The drama and weirdness around the disastrous Blade Runner: Enhanced Edition remake continues this week. Last time we checked in, buyers were very unhappy at the state of the game, and the creators of a popular and long-running fan version had been stiffed by the release of this newer edition.

Now, some changes have been made, at least on the GOG shopfront. When Nightdive’s Enhanced Edition was first released, it took the place of a faithful recreation of the original 1997 game that had been reverse-engineered by fans, removing not just the ability to download this version, but scrubbing its positive reviews as well (the remake, at time of posting, has an overall rating of 1.5/5).

An attempt to rectify this was made when the Enhanced Edition started bundling the fan version alongside it (UPDATE: this addition was only made later on Steam, on GoG the fan version was always available alongside the Enhanced Edition), meaning anyone buying the newer game would get the older one for free. But this also meant that anyone wanting to play the fan version would have to be buying the Enhanced Edition, giving Nightdive the money for something they didn’t make (and potentially paying for a version of the game you didn’t even want).

So GOG have now made another change, this time editing the Blade Runner store listing, with both versions now available separately (and both will show the other version in a drop-down menu from their store listing). Both options cost the same amount of money, and the Enhanced Edition still includes the fan game for free, but the older fan-made game has had its positive feedback restored (at time of posting it’s at 4,7/5), and if you want to buy just that edition, now you can.

Since that sounds incredibly confusing, above is what the GOG store listing actually looks like. Buy the top one and you only get the fan version, with the money going to Blade Runner’s rights holders, Alcon. Buy the second and you get both, with the money going to Nightdive.

Note this only applies to the GOG listing; on Steam the only version available is the Enhanced Edition (which again includes both versions), although it wasn’t as big a deal on Valve’s shopfront, as the fan-made game had previously only been available on GOG, so it hadn’t been displaced.

UPDATE, July 3, 6:40pm: GoG tells Kotaku:

By buying Blade Runner Enhanced Edition on GOG you receive both the EE and the original version for the same price the original was sold before. We thought this was the best possible option for our users, but hearing the dissatisfied comments from some members of our community we soon realized that was not the case for everyone.

Having that in mind, as well as our continuous technical support of the original Blade Runner, we’ve decided to bring the original version back to the store. Ultimately leaving the decision which version of the game to pick in the hands of our community.