So, Dark Matter has arrived...and already kicked up a bit of a storm with a 'to be continued' ending. Mostly because it came completely out of nowhere in a game that, seemed, to be complete. The above video shows the moment in question, sans spoilers, and Erik Schreuder, CEO of Iceberg Interactive, who published the title, has responded to clarify. It seems that, whilst the initial Kickstarter pitch was for a significantly longer, complete, game, when it failed to generate the full £50,000 it was seeking, coming in at only a tenth of that, there were some changes made.

"The idea was then formed to make Dark Matter an episodic series, with episodes selling at a budget price of $14.99. The first installment is what has launched recently on Steam and is simply called Dark Matter. The game is exactly as described on Steam (including that it contains 14 levels)."

That all sounds reasonable, and in fact quite sensible. The reall problem is that no-one was made aware of this being episodic prior to launch. Personally, I'm left disappointed that Iceberg/Interwave did not remain transparent about their plans, but the game does still contain what is listed in the Steam Store page. It is, technically, still a complete game within its own right. That does not, however, excuse the deception and (intentional or otherwise) dishonest way in which this has been handled.

If the episodic nature of the game, now series, had been made known from the outset, this wouldn't even qualify as news. It would have been a blip, at the time it was mentioned, attached to something else happening during development. Instead, it's a black stain on the record of an otherwise well respected developer. And should serve as an example of how not to go about things in the future. But what does everyone else think? An honest blunder, or intentional deception.