Broken Age is Double Fine’s latest soon to be released game. It stars 2 heroes, Vella and Shay, who are sharing oddly similar situations, but exist in radically different worlds. It is an interesting concept that has a rather large backing on Kickstarter and even has an all-star vocal cast with actors like Elijah Wood, who we all know and love as Frodo Baggins. To get the hype train moving, they even released 2 trailers named after Vella and Shay.

However bad tidings were brewing amidst the hype as Double Fine announced to their Kickstarter backers, who have early access, that they were not allowing reviews to be released until 2 weeks after launch. This embargo however extended beyond just their followers, as even the press release codes, which are soon to be issued, were also under this embargo umbrella. The excuse for this highly suspicious act? Simply: “We’re trying to be as fair as possible given that backers will have access to the game before everyone else”.

This kind of action is not uncommon, but it usually has a lot of negative publicity. As a result, later that same day they renounced their embargo saying “there is no longer a Broken Age review embargo, Double Fine now says. Go, reviewers, go!”.

Whilst the intent of the initial embargo was not malicious, but rather to keep spoilers to a minimum, it does not stop it from being any less suspicious. I mean, let’s be honest here, the list of games which have received embargos in the past are not exactly quality titles. Luckily, Double Fine have 2 things going for them at this point: A strong gaming history and the fact they removed the embargo rather hastily.

Double Fine have also dropped all notion of the Early Access system they announced in July, and instead have decided to go with a The Walking Dead style episodic Season Pass. You purchase the game, and are given access to Act 1. Act 2 will be a free update later in the year.

Despite the slight hiccup in PR, Broken Age is looking great, and will be available to buy on Steam on the 28th January for £18.99. You can also pre-order it for the usual 10% discount.