Loop Hero absolutely exploded when it was released a year ago, quickly racking up a ton of sales and gaining a large fan following. However, due to sanctions placed on Russia for its attack on Ukraine, the reality surrounding the game isn’t as clear-cut as it was. The game was developed by the Russian indie dev Four Quarters and, due to the aforementioned sanctions, credit cards can’t always be used to purchase the game. The developer can’t get any of the payouts that do go through, as discovered by PCMag. However, Four Quarters is responding to this in a relatively surprising way — by telling people to pirate Loop Hero instead.
Back in February, Four Quarters made its position clear, saying that it’s against war. Customers have been asking what the best way to purchase the game is so that the dev is able to get paid for their work. As spotted by Vice, Four Quarters responded with a blog post on the Russian social media site VK. Not only does the post recommend that players pirate Loop Hero, but it even links directly to a torrent that prospective players can use to download it.
The developer’s rationale is that it’s doing well as of now and doesn’t require any support. It’s a magnanimous way to respond to the question, that’s for sure.
Things are getting loopy
The 2D, 8-bit-style Loop Hero launched in March of last year. In it, your character walks endlessly in a loop. It’s your job to add tiles and elements to the map that will allow you to accrue more resources while making rotations. Dying will see you losing a lot of those resources, but you can also return to your base at certain intervals with most of your loot intact. Once back at your base, you can use your resources to upgrade facilities.
Being told to just torrent the game if people want to play it is certainly a bit of an unheard of move, but it’s good to know the dev’s position on the matter.
In a statement shared by PC Gamer, the publisher of Loop Hero, Devolver Digital, has said it supports the studio and its decision.
“Devolver Digital fully supports Four Quarters as they navigate this incredibly difficult period,” Devolver’s statement reads. “We’ve been communicating consistently with the team to help them wherever possible and were alerted of the statement ahead of time, which we back 100%.”
