Dev makes classic game free to celebrate release of remake, accidentally does it early and almost gives away the new one, before Valve saves the day

A foot on a head in Desktop Dungeons.
(Image credit: QCF Games)

Desktop Dungeons is a personal favourite, a 2013 roguelike that has all the brutal goodness you expect of the genre with a charming lawyer of puzzle-slash-town-building layered atop. It's a quickfire experience but a game I've lost countless evenings to, and I've been looking forward to Desktop Dungeons: Rewind, an overhauled version of the game that has just released.

As part of Rewind's launch, developer QCF Design took the generous decision to make the original game entirely free for a limited time, which came on top of an even more generous decision: existing owners of the original Desktop Dungeons on Steam would also get Rewind free as a thank you.

Unfortunately, someone pushed the wrong button and the original Desktop Dungeons went free with a 100% discount before Rewind was released. It instantly shot to the top of Steam's New & Trending category. Which put QCF in a bit of a pickle, inasmuch as now people could in theory claim both the original and remake for free. Oopsie!

"Sorry for the confusion at the moment," said QCF in a statement. "We're trying to sort this out. Desktop Dungeons was meant to be free when Desktop Dungeons: Rewind launched, but timings have gotten confused.

"If you claimed Desktop Dungeons for free, we have no idea what's going to happen, and we don't know how it's going to resolve until Valve get back to us."

So the developer tries to do a nice thing and do right by its longstanding community, slightly cocks it up, and may have accidentally given out its new game for free to people who've never paid a penny. On top of which people began complaining about paying for the original, Rewind not appearing in their accounts, while others focused on finding ways to game the Steam database to get Rewind free, and so on.

This is all still ongoing but, thankfully for QCF, Valve has stepped in and saved its ass. "If you claimed Desktop Dungeons for free, you will not get Desktop Dungeon: Rewind for free, Valve got back to us," QCF posted in the last few hours.

Sheesh! I mean, just buy Desktop Dungeons Rewind if you want it. There are people complaining about not getting one or the other games for free, who should have, which is hopefully something that will shake out over the next few days as Valve retroactively fixes the problem. This is a rather perfect example of a well-meaning developer trying to make a generous gesture, and the wires just getting all tangled around it. All's well that ends well… probably.

Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."

Read more
live action Jimbo the Jester from Balatro holding a playing card and addressing the camera
Balatro's first demo could be edited with Notepad to unlock the whole game—the solution? 'Bury it as soon as possible' with a 'newer, shinier version'
Daggerfall Unity - GOG Cut
GOG's bespoke cut of The Elder Scrolls 2: Daggerfall gets delisted tomorrow, so you've got a day to grab it for free as the store works out how 'to publish and maintain such projects better' in future
Characters in The Bazaar, a Hero-Builder game by Tempo, stand confidently with their weapons of choice raised.
Early backers of game decry 'bait and switch' after it backtracks on monetisation promises, dev chooses to stir the pot: 'Seeing Reddit lose it today lets me breathe a huge sigh of relief'
A set of colored blocks representing an operating system under construction.
Zach-like automation puzzle game ABI-DOS is available on Steam for free
Dwarf Fortress adventure mode art
Dwarf Fortress finally got its roguelike Adventure Mode on Steam, so if you'll excuse me, I've got to go fire up a fresh wombat man
A catgirl with long white hair and ears
At least it's not NFTs this time: The new Wizardry RPG is a gacha game
Latest in RPG
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
Latest in News
The heroes are attacked by monsters
Pillars of Eternity is getting turn-based combat to mark its 10th anniversary, and that means PC Gamer editors will soon be arguing about combat mechanics again
Image of Ronaldo from Fatal Fury: City of the Wolves trailer
It doesn't really make sense that soccer star Ronaldo is now a Fatal Fury character, but if you follow the money you can see how it happened
Junah beginning a battle in Metaphor: ReFantazio.
Today's RPG fans are 'very sensitive to feeling like they wasted time' when they die, says Metaphor: ReFantazio battle planner—but Atlus still made combat hard anyway
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'