Just emailed paradox with this email:
Dear Paradox,
I wanted to bring a discussion currently occurring on your forums to the attention of the marketing team.
Various users who have bought For the Glory (a title published by you) via steam and impulse are now unable to update their copies because the patch which has yet to be sent to the appropriate teams at both companies.
Various members of the forum have tried and failed to rectify this and we even had a response from MichaelM which read “Paradox said that a) they did indeed send the patch out and tell people they could release it, and b) it's not worth their time to bug anyone about it. So if anyone is going to bug Valve and Impulse about it, it will have to be you guys”.
As you can clearly imagine point B was a kick in the teeth to many loyal and faithful followers of your brand. After speaking to impulse myself and others to steam it’s clear that the patch has not been received and yet no one is willing to take responsibility to solve this.
What has followed from this is a series of comments which show how irritated and disillusioned your customer base is. Why a five minute job isn’t worth the time completely escapes me as I would have hoped a small niche publisher would be eager to continue its relationships with its loyal customer base rather than go down the path of larger faceless organizations who have become ever more reliant on big mass market titles. Additionally you need to take into account will my upset customers continue to buy from me, recommend purchases and review titles now I have treated them with no interest.
A selection of comments sum up the general mood at the moment:
Samorim: I have a very hard time trying to understand these company policies where they ignore their costumers without any ceremony, remorse or whatever. It's really confusing to me, how can someone be so negligent and contemptuous towards their clients. Sure, FtG is a drop of water in an ocean that is Paradox sales, but isn't it also a Paradox title? Doesn't that put it in the same level of EU3 or Victoria 2? Yes, it can be infuriating (...)
Frogbeastegg: MichaelM, thanks for making a great game. Sorry it's ended up like this; it's not your fault.
I have to say I am deeply disappointed by this; I expected far better from Paradox. If they do not think it worth their time to sort this out for their customers, why should I take it on faith that the same thing will not happen again in the future?
Is resubmitting the patch file really so difficult? The file's already constructed. Steam's answers make it clear that bugging them won't help - if they say they do not have the file (for whatever reason, even if they lost it) then they cannot put it up. Besides, it is not my job to pester Steam and I don't like the suggestion that my time is somehow worth less than Paradox's. I paid them, not vice versa.
I only brought FtG from steam because I couldn't afford the full price as I was in the middle of buying a house. I wanted to support the game because I enjoyed the demo and liked the principle; Steam was offering it for half price, so I got it from there even though I don't like Steam much. It was the only way I could give it a sales stat during the early days. Bad decision: it's left me with a game I haven't played in months and likely won't again. I'm not buying a second copy of the game so I can play it as it should be, and I can't bring myself to play the current version knowing how much it is missing.
The situation leaves such a bad taste I passed up buying Arsenal and HoI2 complete last week when they went on sale, both games I've had on my wishlist for months. If my FtG is still missing 1.2 when EUIII's next expansion rolls around I will be thinking long and hard about whether to buy. I have also stopped recommending FtG to others.
The current thread has nearly reached 1500 views and I would highly advise you to check it out (
http://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/showthread.php?497200-Steam-1.2-any-news/page1).
Hopefully you will read this and realize that actually a five minute job is worth doing if it keeps my customers happy. I would imagine that the mere mention of word of mouth marketing, peer recommendations and customer feedback would be enough for you to shape your customer relations differently but we can only hope.
I look forward to hearing back from you.