"Please Support Us" Pleads Yuzo Koshiro As Pirated Earthion ROM Appears Online

Hopefully they sell enough copies on Steam and on the Switch and PS5 for this to not really matter to them. It’s reviewed well and is priced well too, so fingers crossed.

I want to support the developer but if I bought the steam version I have no problem downloading the rom version since I like playing retro games on my analogue pocket. They should have sold the rom maybe 1-2 months after the sega megadrive version.

This does suck and I feel for them. Piracy is bad when it directly hurts developers. But I think they could have gotten ahead of this by just selling the ROM, or at least not having such a long delay before selling carts.

This is a game specifically meant to appeal to retro enthusiasts. They want to play it on original hardware, not emulated on other consoles. And that's the one option they aren't being given right now.

I don't know why someone would pirate a game that is a retro game... I mean old people like us play those games and they have the money to pay for the game

This sucks and will clearly have an impact on the potential for any future projects.

If the cart was released first, surely that would have been even easier to pull the ROM from?

I guess ultimately no option is safe really, not when a certain demographic is determined to distribute things like this regardless of the impact it has to the business, quick gain, long term loss (for everyone).

Personally I’m not playing this until I can get a physical Mega Drive copy, will be well worth the money, and wait from what I’ve read so far.

if the steam version just had a folder that contained the raw rom, wouldnt be anywhere near as big of an issue

I bought the game as soon as I got the email from Steam saying it was out. I have also downloaded the ROM though as I'd like play Earthion on my Megadrive. When the official cartridge is available I'll definitely be buying it as well. This is more of a stop-gap until I can officially get it.

People are going to support this game buying it anyway but maybe they don't want to support LRG.

Good Sega allowed us to buy their Mega Drive Classic Collection that includes the ROMs. I legally play these games on my console. And nobody gets harm.

I commented on this scenario on the review page last week. Unfortunately it was always going to happen…

I’m surprised they didn’t offer the ROM to purchase, surely would have been simple enough and satisfied the need for people who want to run under emulation on x device, or on original hardware.

I’ll be honest here - I’ve played it via the ROM. I don’t have a Steam account (yes, seriously) but I will buy the physical release on Switch when available (hopefully a JP retail release, but Limited Run if not) and plan to buy the physical cartridge for my Mega Drive as well, although that looks like it’s going to be Limited Run only.

I’m pretty sure the ‘nasty pirate’ comments don’t apply to too many 40/50 something gamers who are always likely to support and even double dip on a game like this - the majority will always want to support the developer.

In fact, I’m surprised the release has gone Steam > Modern Consoles > Original Hardware.

Surely releasing it on Steam and the console digital stores on the same day would have been the right move? Then physical and original hardware a little later due to manufacturing.

Why is it Steam exclusive for now?

People who just want the rom as a back-up after buying the steam version or whatever I have no problem. But anybody pirating a game that just came out just because they’re too cheap to buy it is pretty lame. Especially small indie games, come on people. Don’t do that.

Unfortunately the Megadrive version should of been released first. I bought the Steam version & enjoying playing it on Steam deck. I have already preordered physical Switch version with custom joypad. Will definitely buy the Megadrive version when its up. Unfortunately I knew the rom would get out there.

To be fair to Ancient, they held off releasing the Mega Drive cart first as they want to release it in its most ‘perfect’ form when bugs etc. have been ironed out via the Steam and console releases.

I understand and support this. But it doesn’t change the fact that lots of people want a 16-Bit version now!

@cawley1 I would guess that maybe it might be that the Steam version didn't have to go through LRG?

I plan on getting the Switch version when it eventually releases, but yeah, it would have been nice if it could have released the same day as on Steam.

They could set up a donation link. The game looks and sounds great, but is not something I would ever play myself. Though as an indie game developer that has had my share of difficult game releases, I would donate to these guys because I enjoyed their development updates so much.

Exa Version with exclusive content devalues the original version. The majority will never have the chance to play the best version without resorting to piracy. Stop the exclusivity bs and support your paying customers.

@gingerbeardman —if you want to support the devs then simply buy the game. It helps it rank on digital storefronts in terms of algorithmic discovery, and if you do decide to play it and enjoy it, post a positive review on the product page. People would be surprised how impactful this can be to smaller titles.

@SlangWon —arcade players are paying customers too. The goal is to bring renewed interest to the concept of arcades, which are really struggling currently post-COVID.

If you want to play what you feel is the best version then go to the arcade and play that version.

@Razieluigi —by selling the ROM first, it would significantly undermine the viability of the physical release.

There are no plans to sell a ROM directly.

Oh I will support the game, I just want the MD version

@HammyHavoc What arcade? There are no arcades where I live. Outside of Japan, Exa is all about collectors. Exclusivity in video games should be timed.

@SlangWon —then perhaps you aren't the primary or prioritized target demographic. What an outlier consumer wants versus the wishes of an indie creator with a market they have an understanding of and clear intent towards? The wishes come first every time. There's a very specific goal in mind with it.

Not everything is for everyone. To demand otherwise is to to disrespect the intent of the creator with their art. There's a reason AAA doesn't do stuff like this, and there's a reason why this is being done how it is.

Even folks in the comments saying they bought it on Steam then ripped the ROM to play it elsewhere—have some self-respect, patience and respect towards the creators. If it isn't as good as they would like it to be on MegaDrive/Genesis yet, then perhaps it's worth waiting to enjoy it as they intend for it to be.

I bought the game on Steam immediately when it released. And then I put the rom on my MiSTer and played it that way since it's just a better experience there. The Steam version's menus were so laggy that it was a genuine struggle to try and turn off the filters and boarder art, which I hate.

Still not a fan of people stating they will buy the game down the road when it releases for their platform while just downloading the ROM, acting like they already own a copy of it. It's still piracy if the developer/publisher still hadn't seen a cent right now.

@HammyHavoc Maybe, maybe not.

They're trying to split the difference here with a game that runs natively on old hardware, but offering "value added" extra features on other platforms. And that's not a crazy strategy.

But there are only two possibilities here:

1. The "original hardware" crowd represents a small enough fraction of the audience that piracy won't cut appreciably into sales, in which case their pleas about piracy don't really matter all that much. If anything, they're just helping publicize the existence of ROM files.

-or-

2. The original hardware crowd is the primary audience for this product and they've really botched the launch by leaving that audience without their preferred option to play the game.

In this case, telling an already annoyed audience that they have no plans to release a ROM is only making things worse. It's a terrible failure to read their own audience — the retro-indie equivalent of "do you guys not have phones?"

This game looks fantastic and I intend to buy the cart once it's available. But this has all been handled very poorly. Everything happening right now could have been predicted.

People wanted to play that game on Sega Genesis.

They should have hired someone more competent than Limited Run to make the cartridges.

By 2026, when they eventually release the genesis version, everybody who was interested in playing that game on console will have done so on a flashcart.

It's hard to say what the impact of the ROM being out there is in this case. This isn't a typical situation. It's a retro-style game for a retro console at its core. The developer is well regarded among the audience for this and the project was well publicized. I find it plausible that this would have minimal impact on sales. So many people who were interested in this were planning to buy it one way or another. It's unfortunate the cart release comes much later, but carts are largely for collectors now so it's a subset of the audience. But the ROM was going to be out there eventually. I doubt it will affect cart sales much since collectors are not affected by such things. Hopefully it doesn't hurt the digital and modern platforms much. This is to be expected, however, when people know there's a ROM in the data files. As it only took less than 24 hours to have it extracted and playable, whatever method they used to protect it was woefully inadequate.

Of course, I understand and agree with Koshiro's plea for people to buy it. I think this game may be "resistant" to piracy affecting sales for reasons I mentioned before, and I hope that's the case. I was distracted by Ninja Gaiden Ragebound and the demo for Shinobi Art of Vengeance, so I didn't get around to Earthion until the day after release. Feels funny calling it a day-two purchase. I'm only one guy, but the ROM was already out there by the time I purchased the game, and that development wasn't going to change it.

It'll be fine. Nearly every game in existence is already floating around out there (with old console ROMs and DRM-free PC games being especially easy to get one's hands on), and a majority of people are still willing to go on Steam/NSO/GOG/etc. and pay money for those exact same games.

@HammyHavoc Your pretentious talk about art and patience can't mask the fact that on a larger scale these are poor business decisions. They annoy their customers by massively delaying the og version and then proceed to annoy even more by announcing a superior version that 99% of the people who were backing them can't play. Good luck with that.

@Razieluigi —I respect, appreciate and agree with a lot of where you're coming from to a great extent.

However, they are not the publisher and thus not the manufacturer of the physical edition. Nobody wants to be left sitting on physical copies that haven't sold, or worse, may never sell.

ANCIENT has sold out recent physical releases before, e.g., NES physical version of Amazon's Training Road (USD $59.99). ANCIENT has also offered a free ROM (Amazon's Running Diet) before that. Amazon's Training Road is an enhanced version of Amazon's Running Diet. If there's anyone who would know what they're doing over this, it's ANCIENT, IMO. They understand their market, and there's a reason they're doing it this way. I am certain LRG also understands it too, they also published Amazon's Training Road.

Earthion isn't a novelty created in a month, it represents years of hard work from a veteran. A new high-quality game from Yuzo Koshiro is a good opportunity for a physical release and to encourage more interest in this area (and in arcades, which I'm also deeply passionate about—if you haven't got arcades in your area, perhaps this is what's attempted to be avoided for those who still have them), but the ROM getting pirated and the discourse surrounding it inevitably undermines the confidence of the publisher with a physical release. It's already a risk to do a physical MegaDrive/Genesis cartridge, but what folks don't realize is that by this being pirated, they're potentially risking screwing themselves out of a physical release and out of further new games for old consoles.

It's clear ANCIENT isn't happy with how the MegaDrive/Genesis version is at present, hence the desire to be able to get it perfect as they can't patch physical copies. A problem like that is significant for small biz in both trust and cost. I respect the decision. It might not make sense to others, but it doesn't have to be understood, it just has to be respected.

I say let ANCIENT do what they want to do and give them the space to breathe and make the thing happen in the way they want it to rather than lambast and complain that it isn't how you would do it. If you want to do it your way then start making games (I did).

A friend I ran a record label with in Berlin now runs his own label, and they do vinyl-only releases, and yes, of course, it gets pirated in the end. But the next project gets funded via the physical edition, because digital isn't paying for anything with music.

Games are a different story—I composed music for All Walls Must Fall on both Steam and Nintendo Switch—now we give the game away for free to whoever wants it so that it's preserved into the future and it can stand as testament to who we were, where we were and how we felt. Unlike ANCIENT, we had a successful Kickstarter (€36,576 and we only asked for €15,000), funding was also matched by a local scheme in Berlin. ANCIENT and LRG don't have leeway for problems and to not get compensated for what they've created. The level of risk is appreciable.

In the spirit of openness, Yuzo and I are mutuals. We haven't had a conversation regarding any of this (that's intentional on my behalf as I have very strong opinions on balancing making art and staying afloat, having both succeeded and crashed-and-burned in equal measure over the years), but it's easy to understand the above, IMO.

@SlangWon —as for me being pretentious about art, sure, if that's how you would prefer to view it (I don't care).

However, there's a reason I get to work on scores as a composer and re-recording mixer for journalism award-winning docs, games et al, and why I continually get to create stuff with people I respect. It's because I am passionate about the artistic value of something, and know not to listen to armchair commentators who just consume the output rather than contribute something to the culture.

But, you know, that's just my perspective, just like me being "pretentious" about art is yours. Indie isn't AAA. Indie doesn't usually have a safety net. Yuzo has been indie for quite literally decades—ANCIENT knows what they're doing. They know how to balance art and business just fine.

Unfortunately, I could see this incentivizing other developers to only release their "retro-like" games on Steam or modern consoles, passing over legitimate retro consoles like the Sega Genesis altogether.

@wiiware Agreed. I'll happily buy a ROM from Itch!

Happily bought it on Steam. Will get it for MD next year too, even though right now I don't have a working one. That said I think it's again a matter of availability. The interwebs is flooded with Anbernic devices, logically people want to play Earthion on their go-to-device.

You can't stop piracy, but you could make the rom available for 15 bucks or as part of the Steam download. It wouldn't cannibalize in MD cartridge sales too much I figure, as only real retro enthusiasts were going to get it in the first place.

So yeah.

Great game. Love it.

My Go to forum for this kind of thing was just shut down.

I'm still buying the game on Steam though. Gotta support it.

@HammyHavoc That's all nice and great and I agree with everything you say. But reality is reality and as much as Ancient knows how they want to approach a release, as much they could know that it would be pirated the day it drops.

It's the whole limewire VS spotify thing all over again. Make it easily obtainable for a reasonable price and people won't bother pirating. At least the vast majority wouldn't. In 40 years of internet we didn't figure out a better way, did we?

I will be getting the physical MD cart as a collectible token alone and I want that cover and box and everything. But yeah of course people want to play it everywhere.

The obvious best solution here is to convince SEGA to bring out a new Megadrive, reprint the most popular carts and begone with predatory AAA gaming forever! Ahahahahahahaha! <3

purchased on steam after reading this article

The pirates seem to be confused individuals. They are all for not wanting to pay for games until indie devs are hurt.

@Scollurio —LRG specialize in physical editions—the market is flooded with unlicensed counterfeits/reproductions (whatever you want to call them) of both classic and contemporary games for old consoles—even fan-made ROM-hacks of classic games get unlicensed physical editions.

I imagine the same is going to end up being true for Earthion, and with what the average repro/fake costs, complete with box and manual, from various online marketplaces—that's a very serious potential problem for LRG and makes the whole thing more of a risk.

Sure, some people would buy a ROM, but LRG obviously knows whether or not this approach works (this is literally what their entire business model lives and dies on after all), just like I know whether you can give away records that are pay-what-you-want in a sustainable way—even Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails couldn't make that model work, despite the best of intentions for the audience. The audience doesn't understand that these models place a lot of trust in the public to do the right thing and support what they enjoy if they want more of what they enjoy—if they can afford to support it. Ergo, not all pirates can afford to pay, thus they aren't lost sales, but not every pirate is broke, and would have otherwise bought the thing if they couldn't play it any other way.

If it comes down to a physical edition being possible versus not being possible, the potential of it being possible is something that's going to be pursued (makes the whole thing feel more satisfying from the dev perspective), but it represents a calculated risk for the publisher that ultimately has to make sense. Choosing to do a physical edition doesn't have to make sense to anyone but ANCIENT—it's their baby. Likewise, following through on the physical version is also the prerogative of LRG, agreements not withstanding.

IMO, the "best" solution for enthusiast players would be the contemporary equivalent to MegaNet, Satellaview et al—an official cartridge with WiFi for a proper online storefront. But from a dev perspective, it's just selling via another digital store that you get 70% of and have to price low to compete with everything else distributed digitally, and another opportunity to be told to eff yourself if you aren't ticking whatever boxes they want ticking in terms of content, regional censorship et al.

You're not really any better off as an indie studio for that being an option as the potential market for that is a fraction of the one who would buy a new, straight-forward, physical version of a game as they don't need a non-existent hypothetical future WiFi-enabled cart with a digital storefront, because physical copies are a thing here in the present. Only advantage would be in being able to patch your game, but then we're back at the problem of modern gaming where lots of things ship when they're meant to, but they don't ship in a good state and need a lot of post-release updates to get them to where they should be. When indie gets a physical release, it's usually because someone believes it's as good as it is going to be.

You usually can't fix socioeconomic problems with technological solutions—you also can't fix greed. The only way humanity will ever make sense of all this in terms of sustaining art without trusting the public to not be stupid about it is with UBI, IMO—chances of that happening? Not in my lifetime, but good luck to the future generations who try to figure it out, I'm rooting for you.

Maybe it's just me... But making games for retro scene, a scene notorious for piracy, is asking to be pirated?

@HammyHavoc I refuse to give LRG a penny

@Fiyz —media in any medium is easily pirated—even pre-release not uncommonly. Rate of piracy is higher on current-gen consoles because that's where the overwhelming majority of players are, and enabling piracy on modern consoles is cheaper than on retro ones, plus most current game-playing demographics want to play modern games on modern consoles. If it wasn't the case, AAA would be focusing on old games for old consoles too, and console manufacturers would be selling you upgrades for your old hardware. New games for old consoles are a labour of love.

Volume and revenue of modern versus yesteryear hardware for indie titles that are high quality? Now that's a whole other thing and totally relative. It's like music—most people will listen to the digital version of something, but it'll be the short run of vinyl, tapes and t-shirts that meant the most in terms of the bottom-line and viability of further projects.

On the one hand, I am the first to tell people that digitally-recorded music sounds worse on vinyl. On the other hand, whilst it might be a gimmick/novelty, it is actually something people will buy (despite offering them DSD source quality et al digitally), even if they never actually play the record as they not uncommonly don't even own a turntable—but the customers generally understand that they're funding the next project one way or another. Physical editions of games aren't any different. Anyone disagrees? Well, perhaps it simply isn't aimed at you.

@gingerbeardman —then you do you—doesn't mean others won't. Regardless of however you feel about LRG, they remain in business, and they also understand the market demographic that's relevant to them or they wouldn't continue to do business. LRG is really non sequitur to the topic at hand about people pirating a game that isn't ready to be released on MegaDrive/Genesis whilst people try to justify the "why" despite the pages of indie history being cluttered with studios that deserved better than what the public gave them. The meaningful topics are really that of respect, trust and consent.

When I went looking the other evening, it did not take me long to find the ZIP file with Earthion and other related files. At the same time, I looked around for recent Mega Drive releases (mainly Homebrew) as it's a while since I put anything on my flashcart - the Ghostbusters hack, Final Fight MD etc.

I knew that ZPF had also been recently released, but the only ROM of that I could see is a demo.

This struck me as odd, given that on the one hand you have a homebrew release that's only on a Mega Drive cart currently (I believe) and no commercial game ROM has been leaked, and on the other you have Earthion, which has released via Steam and now seems to be easily available if you go looking.

So, what is causing the above? Is it that there is more respect for ZPF developer Mega Cat Studios, as it appears people have chosen not to release the ROM. Is it because it is only on a vintage cart currently, so maybe less people who would be inclined to leak it to the internet have the relevant hardware to get the ROM off the cart? Is it because Earthion is on Steam, and easier to extract the ROM file from?

I feel bad for Ancient, and it must be causing them stress knowing it's been pirated, but I still believe that people who were going to buy the game will still do so, even if they have got hold of the ROM beforehand.

I just wish the console releases had happened at the same time as Steam, then I could have bought it as well.

I guess no way to stop it really. I'll certainly get it on Switch digitally, the Mega Drive cart would be nice, but my Mega Drive stopped working and I'd need to source another with a 60Hz mod at least to play the game at the right speed, even if I did buy the cart. Wonder if they'd considered an Evercade release, emulation but would be a nice cart to have.

Maybe a Data Discs release of the soundtrack on vinyl would be good too, I have Streets of Rage and Revenge of Shinobi, his music is great. Im sure I wasn't the only kid plugging headphones into the Mega Drive just for the soundtracks.

The other thing -and this will be the kicker- is there are pirated carts of ZPF on eBay for significantly less than the real deal.

It is obvious that by the end of the week, there will be knock-off Earthion Mega Drive carts on eBay and AliExpress etc. I think that will be an even more painful situation for Koshiro and his team to stomach.

@cawley1 —ZPF ROM is available. ZPF is lower profile than a new Yuzo Koshiro game though. They're also apples and oranges as ZPF successfully crowd-funded the project for $204,670—they stand a better chance of riding it out, just like we didn't flinch when All Walls Must Fall got pirated on PC and Switch as the whole thing was paid for between Kickstarter and a creative grant in Berlin.

@cawley1 I think that comparison to ZPF comes down to how widespread the distribution is. I've observed that the kinds of people who buy the carts understand the situation for the developer and don't rush to dump the carts and release the ROM. For example, I saw with Mad Stalker for the Mega Drive, the ROM wasn't easy to find for at least several weeks from what I saw(people asking for it with no luck). With a Steam release, it's available to a wider audience, so the type of person inclined to extract the ROMs, even if it's just something they do for their own amusement, would have easy access to the game.

@HammyHavoc
At the end of the day, I am certain that Ancient will make more back on Earthion than Mega Cat will on ZPF.

@Fiyz That is true, but also making a game for a classic console brings such projects extra publicity. So there is a risk there, but it's balanced by a possible reward for doing it that way.

@Ristar24 —Evercade was mentioned on Twitter/X earlier, but with legal agreements in place, it is what it is in terms of the upcoming physical release as it stands, and no further comment can be given at this moment in time.

Evercade also much more niche than the many MegaDrive/Genesis consoles already out there. I've known some folks to do well with an Evercade release, but others not so much (old well-known classic games being re-released tend to do well).

Think it depends on where/who your existing fanbase is. I notice many more Brits into Evercade in my own experiences (got a real surprise with how many Brits talked about Soul Reaver on Evercade on Bluesky et al), but I've yet to encounter a Brit who had heard about Earthion, whereas I was surprised by the difference in US folks knowing about it when talking about upcoming games I was excited for.

@cawley1 —I'm not privy to numbers or circumstances, but when any trustworthy major figure publicly pleads for support of their latest offering due to circumstances outside of their control, I wouldn't be so quick to assume anything when the likes of this can harm confidence with the publisher.

These things very niche, but they seldom ever feel it.

Take Revolution Software—despite Broken Sword having a seemingly huge cult following, working on game adaptations for major IP et al, the studio has closed its doors repeatedly. Being indie is difficult. Quality games are seldom ever enough, and the business aspect is complex and ever-changing with totally weird mixed revenue streams that are different for every game and studio.

The Road to Revolution book is pretty enlightening about the economics of indie studios BTW (amidst many other things), it's worth a read if you're genuinely interested in how someone can make something amazing, yet due to whatever agreement the studio had to settle for, it's not necessarily easy to survive long-term, but they took it because that's what there was and they had to accept something to actually have some hope of staying afloat with a project and assumed future revenue stream.

However, Revolution also reopened its doors repeatedly and is still making games, but it is sincerely passion for the the art that keeps these things viable—both from the team and the audience. They've done crowdfunding too. I've also been a part of a few games that have crashed-and-burned in crowdfunding despite having known talents attached to it. Tis a fickle ol' thing. Nothing is certain with this stuff, and over-budget and behind schedule is the norm in indie.

@avcrypt —if it exists, the DRM will inevitably be cracked on it (online functionality notwithstanding). Doesn't matter what the publisher could have done, it was inevitably going to happen. The higher the profile, the shorter the time it takes for it to happen.

If Nintendo with their enormous war chest can't protect their updated ROMs from being extracted and ran on retro hardware or emulators, why would this be any different? If it could be done, it would be done. This is why AAA pushes online functionality so hard, because if someone pirates it, they miss out on the crux of the experience. Apples and oranges though. Hurts the little guy more than it hurts the faceless corp with a legion of shareholders—employees cop for commercial failures though.

@HammyHavoc Thats interesting, the Mega Drive was very popular once the 8-bit Mircos started to fade in the UK, the Master System also did pretty well, I played 8-bit Sonic a lot! I've seen the Amiga game Rougecraft is getting it's own cart, but having stuff like the Mega Drive version of Midnight Resistance was one of the reasons I bought an evercade, the Oliver Twins collection too. The new Rare collection with the Spectrum games is bound to do well for them. Be one to wait and see I guess, I'd buy an evercade release certainly.

The ROM is not for sale! If I can't buy it. There is only one option left. I would of course prefer to play this on mister/fpga. If I like it I would buy the ROM or a Cartridge. As long as the cart does not cost too much. I would even rip my own ROM with my OSCR if I HAD, the option!
PRO TIP: If it's not for sale. They will NOT buy it!

@SteveFox —there's plenty of options, including PC right now, current-gen consoles, a future physical edition for MegaDrive/Genesis, even arcades. The unjustified sense of entitlement and lack of respect towards the studio is ludicrous.

The topic isn't about playing pirated copies of games, it's about rugpulling a small studio's release arrangement with their publisher and potentially jeopardizing their finances following years of dev on a niche title.

Being able to play the ROM on MegaDrive/Genesis before it's even considered finished for the target original hardware for the studio and publisher to even be able to manufacture the physical copies is a consequence of the above—not difficult to understand. It not being ready yet is exactly why there isn't a physical version yet, and if a ROM was a consideration, also why there would be no ROM at this stage.

Big "hurrdurr, I pirated this unfinished movie and it's not good, it's a bad movie, you should not buy this movie or go to see it" energy. He who pays the least complains the most.

I've just ordered the standard Switch physical version from Amazon.jp - it costs as much to ship it to the UK as the game, but I would prefer the Japanese version over the Limited Run release.

@HammyHavoc "It not being ready yet is exactly why there isn't a physical version yet"
Which is clearly not the case and can be seen by everybody who plays through the whole game using Everdrive Pro or an emulator like BlastEm. You can always polish here and there but the game is obviously finished. They could have sold roms first and cartridges later which has worked for several indie studios before but the incompetent tools at Limited Run Games got greedy.

@SlangWon —release notes/changelog by the time the physical edition ships will tell us both if that was the case.

Oh look, a quick glance at Steam shows that there's bugs:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/3597580/discussions/0/597408128295830108/

https://steamcommunity.com/app/3597580/discussions/0/597407749214894881/

Tell me again how this is ready to ship a physical edition of. Better to delay and make sure it's as good as it can be than manufacture buggy physical editions that won't sell because they're flawed.

I think people are vastly overestimating the number of physical MD carts this game will actually move. Couple that in with the amount of overhead required for manufacturing and all the middlemen getting a cut and IMO they'd probably make more in one day on the Switch eShop then the entire run of MD carts. If I'm wrong I'd love to see the numbers to prove it.

Also, I don't really understand the vitriol by people that only want a ROM file. "I'd gladly support them by buying just a ROM file, but I can't so to hell with them and I'm not giving them one red cent." Well, pay your $20 on Steam then play the ROM that's easily obtainable. At this point it's very easy to discern between people that feel entitled to everything for free and people that genuinely want to support a game.

The ROM is bigger than 4MB. That means it needs a specialized cartridge with a mapper to work on a regular console. I will be very surprised if this ever happens as a physical Genesis release.

I'm not saying it's right that the game got pirated — far from it — but if they left a unencrypted rom inside the Steam folder, and simply sold it with an emulation layer to use on Steam, exactly what did they expect would happen? Are they actually that naive?

@WileyDragonfly Huh? Neofid's games were even bigger, and they released on physical Genesis carts. They would also give you the ROM if you purchased the physical cart (As well as had the option to purchase the ROM directly, and included it in the Steam versions).

Also, it IS coming to cart, this was already confirmed long ago. The cart version just won't release until 2026.

@AMAGON Maybe don't assume that all the people waiting have downloaded the pirated ROM.

Personally, I'm waiting because Steam is no longer really viable for me since I had to switch to a laptop that doesn't have an expansion slot for more storage.

I have to wait for the digital Switch release (which I have no problem doing) because I just don't have enough space for my old Steam games anymore.

@WileyDragonfly If only we had the technology for specialized cartridges with advanced mappers in 2025.

To anyone who already found the playable rom online and had it downloaded, please go to Steam and pay for the actual game. It's only $20 and will greatly support Mr. Koshiro and all his future projects. Don't be a scumbag and ruin this for all of us.

The amount of stereotypical gamer entitlement here is gross.
Support indie devs. We need indie devs.
Actually support the artform you're supposedly so passionate about if you want it to survive.

I bought it, and plan to get the Genesis cart when it becomes available for ordering. It's good, and worth more than the asking price.

They should've waited and done a simultaneous release of the game on all intended platforms and provided the ROM with the Steam release. They wouldn't need to plead like this.

@FR4M3 When people operate under the assumption that others are bad, this starts a vicious cycle that leads to further negative actions. They are operating on good faith, and I see no reason to backseat folks with good intentions. Coulda, woulda, shoulda.

I’ll be buying the console version (day 1), but I’d sure have liked to be able to buy a ROM to run on FPGA. I’m not interested in a physical cart.

@HammyHavoc No problem, I tell you again - the game is finished, these bugs you talk about are mainly emulation related. That's why the Exa version is also finished. The emulator the Steam version is using is inferior to the emulators that are available for free and have been developed over a time of many years.

Bought the game on Steam, and have been enjoying it on my Steam Deck. But I also got the rom, and use it my Mega Everdrive Pro, as I wanted to play it on original hardware NOW.
And I also pre-ordered the deluxe box, on Switch, from Japan. And I will also buy the physical Mega Drive cart, next year.
Hopefully we get the option to buy one from Japan, and not forced to go through Limited Run...

This is the best shmup, ever made for the Mega Drive, and one of the best overall, on any systems. I hope this sells good enough, so they can make more games.

Would love a Vinyl of the soundtrack as well.
One of the rare examples, of a game that actually lives up to the hype. It was worth the wait.

@SlangWon
They are still doing some tweaking to the game, that is not only emulator related.

"Earthion Version 2.0.1 Patch Notes
Fixed issue of subweapons becoming unusable

Fixed issue of subweapons occasionally not displaying correctly

Fixed issue of game freezing after inputting password

Fixed issue of sound effects not playing after selecting Continue

Adjusted enemy bullets to be more easily visible

Adjusted three pixels in the second half of Stage 2

Start can now be pressed when selecting Continue

Can skip Countdown by pressing Start (Only in Automatic Mode)

Added 2 more Challenge Modes"

I bought the game on steam to support the devs and then downloaded the rom to play on Retroarch. Game is great, worth the fair asking price.

@Paintboxer going to do the same. I think they made a mistake not offering the rom for download directly.

It was obviously going to be made available online almost immediately so why not give people the means to play it how they want.

I don't want to play it on Steam, this will be great on my Mega Drive Mini, Batocera mini pc or half dozen handhelds I own.

@AllieKitsune —game is a few megabytes—I'm sure you can make it fit on your laptop if you delete a few screenshots or bloatware that comes with the laptop.

@FR4M3 —that's not how business works. There are contractual obligations to meet, and delays kill hype. You have to play the hand you're dealt.

@Exerion76 —we are just feeding a troll at this point. He would argue that black was white if he thought it would get him some attention. Of course the game has bugs and isn't ready for a physical edition, otherwise it would have been there day one.

@HammyHavoc Yeah, sure. It's always the others who are trolling.
@Exerion76 Nearly all of the fixes in patch 2.0.1 are connected to the emulator. The only two that are not are visibility and challenges. Strangely, visibility was never a problem with Exa. Btw, I compared blastem emulator to the emu used in the steam version and know for a fact that steam version has more lag. Especially after applying graphical shaders.
I stand by my opinion, not selling a rom was a bad decision and Exa-exclusive content should be timed.

@avcrypt —see my above comment about when a game I worked on for both Steam and Nintendo Switch ending up being pirated, and also note that I do interviews on cryptography, so you may want to rein in the attitude.

When you said
"I'm not sure you understand what copy protection exists to do."
followed by
"they might have well not included any at all given how trivially they implemented it."
it is quite literally making my point that it's inevitable whilst also invalidating your incorrect assertion that I somehow don't understand the purpose of DRM.

By your same flawed logic, because every game on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch gets pirated, that must thus mean that the publisher and also Sony and Nintendo are somehow not trustworthy? Bizarre take.

Keep in mind that the likes of Denuovo cost USD $25,000 per month with an additional $0.50 per license activation. Do you really think the economic reality of an indie game like this makes that viable? There's a reason that even larger titles remove their Denuvo after a while—it stops making economic sense even for them.

Maybe indies just aren't shaking the magical money tree hard enough. "Why do indie films not have all-star ensemble casts, Spielberg, Zimmer, Arri Alexa cameras et al? If your hard work gets pirated then that's your fault because you didn't spend enough of your infinite pot of money on preventing the inevitable. It's only money and all creatives are loaded because it's movies/music/video games/books/art" is the kind of energy this comment gives.

Seems to me that you just wanted to use a stranger as an emotional punching bag and it didn't work out for you—all the same, I hope you got whatever it is that's up out of your system. Maybe go play a game or something next time.

@HammyHavoc I don't want Steam on my other laptop, period.

It's not worth it when I can't install every game I've paid for.

And this older one (which I don't play games on anymore because the monitor is screwed up) is the one that has Steam on it.

It's not about the size of Earthion.

It's about being done with Steam.

@avcrypt That's just plain foolish on their part then. I'd prefer to see people pay for the game, I think it's worth it, but they can't be surprised at this outcome. Perhaps they should have waited to sell it that way until the Genesis cart was out or secured it in a better way than this. **shrug**

Selling your game exclusively on Steam also hurts small indies, don't try to pull the victim card. You're making things worse for the consumer while simultaneously letting Valve steal more of your money. That does way more harm to indies that piracy.

It's like a reverse of Paprium! 😲

To be honest I'm more likely to buy the Steam version at some point. An off branded MD release doesn't appeal to me.

I'm of two minds on this...

First, let me preface by saying two things:
1. I pre-ordered the Collector's Edition of the physical Switch release and the specially branded 8BitDo 6-button, bought it on Steam when I heard about the ROM leak, and still fully intend to buy the eventual physical retro console release.
2. I just finished a playthrough of Earthion on my hacked Super Famicom Mini. (Next I'm hooking up a CRT!)

This was bound to happen. If they wanted to mitigate the piracy risk, they should've released the Genesis/MD version simultaneously.

I get what he's saying about wanting to make sure all the bugs are out before a cart release, but frankly it's such a niche market that most people who buy the physical retro console release will probably have the tools to update the cartridge should it be necessary.

If the ROM had been a feature of the PC release from the beginning, this wouldn't be an issue. Include a tool which decrypts the ROM but 'fingerprints' it with the user's Steam ID, so subsequent leaks can be traced to their source. Sure, it would have leaked eventually, but I'll bet many would have happily ripped their own ROMs for personal use.

The biggest enemy of piracy is accessibility. And the biggest ally of piracy is the word 'No.'

I'm not disappointed in the piracy...as I said, it's inevitable... What disappoints me is that instead of putting a tutorial out there for people to decrypt the ROMs themselves, apparently the community's first stop was straight-up putting the ROMs on the Internet Archive... My dude, just tell people how to obtain the ROMs 'legitimately' themselves and let leaking it be on somebody else. Why was that our go-to??

All that said, support Ancient and Yuzo Koshiro. Earthion is easily one of my favorite shmups, and as a connoisseur of the genre for four decades, that's saying something.

The best way to play on PC right now is newest Rom + Retroarch + Genesis Plus X + Second Instance Run-Ahead turned on. It's less laggy than the Steam emulation, gives you save states for training and more shader options for the visuals.
The best version of the game overall is the in every regard superior Exa arcade version.
Most hardcore Megadrive fans play their games from an Everdrive, preferably an Everdrive Pro.
Not offering the Rom was a bad decision.

@WileyDragonfly it happened on day 1, was shared on Discord. Mitsurugi_w from Arcade Projects sells such cartridges with custom mapper (without the ROM you'll have to find yourself).

@Razieluigi we've had them since 2011 (at the time it was developped to run the indie game Pier Solar, but it also runs Super Street Fighter II and Earthion). Mitsurugi_w from Aracde Projects sells the cartridge without the ROM.

@BernardMerguez Yes, I know. I was joking.