A few months ago, indie developer Code Avarice had their game, Paranautical Activity, removed from Steam after one of its members threatened to kill Gabe Newell. In a surprising turn of events, said game has returned to Steam under new ownership.
Paranautical Activity, a roguelike First-Person shooter, now belongs to publisher Digerati Distribution with specializes in distributing indie titles. This re-released “Deluxe Atonement Edition” features several new features, namely developer commentary and footage, a game guide, one new level, weapon and item, and some wallpapers.
According to Eurogamer, Digerati paid an upfront fee to Code Avarice to buy the rights to Paranautical Activity. According to Digerati, Valve were “really responsive” to the idea of getting the game back on the Steam roster and that “the whole process from IP transfer to learning it would be reonboarded was around four weeks.”
The whole story behind Paranautical Activity‘s reappearance on Steam began last October, when Valve apparently failed to properly change its status from Early Access to fully released. This prompted developer Mike Maulbeck to call Steam “the most incompetent piece of f***ing s**t,” and state that he was “going to kill Gabe Newell. He is going to die.”
Not one to take death threats directed at their head honcho lightly, Valve responded by removing Paranautical Activity from Steam. Shortly after, Maulbeck resigned from Code Avarice and sold his share of the company to co-founder Travis Pfenning. This move apparently turned out to be a mistake, as Maulbeck rejoined the studio the following November.
A statement on the studio’s official blog read, “Looking for a new source of income was extremely overwhelming and when it finally came time to put pen to paper, Mike and Travis agreed the best thing to do would be to have Mike return to Code Avarice. In retrospect we should have waited until everything was finalised before making the announcement, but Mike was extremely eager to just get out and never look back.”
Although Paranautical Activity is no longer the property of Code Avarice, the two-man studio is now working on a new project, titled Spinal Destination.