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 Good Old Games 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, 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 Good Old Games have now made another change, this time editing the Blade Runner store listing to default to the fan version, with Nightdive’s game now available separately from a drop-down menu. 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, here’s 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 version), though 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.
