Darkest greetings Underlords,

Since time immemorial there has been a group of Underlords dedicated to the cause of freedom – freedom from the shackles of Digital Rights Management. These stalwart anti-heroes have campaigned long and hard in demand of a better DRM-Free experience for themselves and for other like-minded formless beings. Today their calls for action have been heard!

The History of WFTO and DRM-Free

During our Kickstarter campaign we made a commitment to release a DRM-Free version of the game. Unfortunately the nature of development and the need for tools and features that were beyond our reach (as a startup developer on a shoestring budget), meant that we had to incorporate APIs such as Steamworks to support a number of core features.

“DRM-Free WFTO coming August 2013 after just 8 months of development! How young we were…”

Ultimately this meant that there was a significant difference in parity between the DRM-Free and Steam versions of the game, such as the lack of DLC support, online multiplayer and tracked achievements. When we announced that this would be the case we decided to offer both versions as an option to all our backers, as well as anyone who purchased the game via our website or the Humble Store. Though more than anything this was simply a stopgap to give players options as the game developed over the years that followed.

We’ve never been happy with this situation and we’ve continued to explore potential options as we’ve moved forwards, our goal ultimately to provide a meaningful DRM-Free experience that offers as much parity as possible with other versions of the game. For our fans and backers who have been eagerly anticipating this day (and reminding us fervently in comments), the wait is finally over!

WFTO Has Come to GOG.com!

We’re proud to announce that War for the Overworld and its DLC are now available on GOG.com, which marks a significant increase in features compared to the old DRM-Free version of the game.

The GOG version offers all the DLC options available on Steam, both via GOG Galaxy and as standard DRM-Free installers:

Online multiplayer, tracked achievements, and cloud saving are also available via the GOG Galaxy client. Direct connect and LAN play are also supported in the GOG.com downloadable version (as they were in the old DRM-Free build).

We’re aware many of you that have already purchased via Steam or Humble will want to acquire the GOG version, and for the base game you will be able to do so via GOG Connect for the next week. Please note this only supports the base game, and DLC cannot be redeemed in this manner.

Kickstarter backers or anyone that purchased the game before the GOG release, that wants to get their hands on the GOG version, will need to contact us directly via [email protected] (please enclose your backer email address, or Humble purchase email address and order number).

We’ve worked hard with our friends over at GOG.com to try and ensure this version of War for the Overworld is as good as it can be, and to provide as many avenues as possible for our existing fans to move over to their service. We’re sure you have tons of questions about the new release, so please check out our FAQ.

Patch 1.6.2

But that’s not all! We’re also unleashing Patch 1.6.2 upon the not so unsuspecting (thanks to the public test branch!) populous, across both Steam and GOG versions of the game. This not-so-minor patch introduces a number of improvements, in particular majorly overhauled netcode, which should improve the multiplayer experience dramatically.

If that’s whet your appetite then check out the full patch notes here!

Cheers,

– Brightrock Games Team

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