Scorn 2022 delay leads to drama, refund requests, game director outburst, and an apology

While some are certainly hyped for the Alien and HR Giger-inspired Scorn, a series of events has soured things for others. The upcoming survival horror game was originally slated to release this fall on Xbox Series X/S and PC, but the newest trailer released nearly a year ago as of the time of this writing. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the game was recently delayed to 2022. Developer Ebb Software gave no reason for the delay nor a specific release date beyond a window of sometime next year.

About a month later, the developer issued a statement on Kickstarter regarding the delay. Ebb explained that it has indeed been hard at work developing Scorn, despite a long period of silence after the previous trailer. The statement calls out CD Projekt Red’s multiple CG trailers for Cyberpunk 2077 “that didn’t help when the final game [released],” blames the marketing team for the game’s poor initial reception, and claims it needed another year of development time.

That’s followed by gripes about living up to Scorn’s hype and an invitation to “just ask for a refund and be done with it,” since Scorn is “just a game.” The whole piece reads less like a PR statement and more like a rant, with a rather hostile tone. And plenty of people did take Ebb up on that refund offer.

The very next day, Ebb Software CEO / Scorn creative director Ljubomir Peklar returned to Kickstarter with a follow-up. Peklar apologized for the previous statement and took responsibility for approving it, admitting that “it was clear that the hostile tone it was written in should not be how we should express ideas or plans to people that help us out.” Peklar stated that the team’s tiredness and difficulty developing the game are “no reason to lash out.”

Cut to a few days later, and we have the latest Kickstarter update from Ebb Software, explaining the team’s future plans for the studio and Scorn itself. Step one, Ebb will be hiring a “dedicated community support role” to liaise between the studio and its fans. Step two, Ebb promises “monthly deep dive[s]” into Scorn, which will include news posts, development progress, and more trailers as the release date approaches. We don’t know when that date will be, but Ebb’s plans for the rest of the development cycle are certainly a positive contrast to the initial rant.