Indie game Dark Matter has been the subject of recent controversy over its abrupt ending. The game ends abruptly after about four hours when the player enters a door and a black screen with white text tells you how the game plays out from that point. The game isn’t in early access nor was it advertised as episodic. Sounds like getting your $15 worth.

In response to the controversy and the false advertising about the game and its ending, online retailer GOG.com is offering users the opportunity to get a refund on their purchase of Dark Matter.

In a post on the GOG forums, a GOG staff member under the pseudonym of TheEnigmaticT posted that anyone who bought the game prior to the site updating the game’s description yesterday would be able to get a refund. They just have to contact GOG support and they’ll get a refund or site credit.

Meanwhile, over on the Steam forums, the CEO of publisher Iceberg Interactive, Erik Schreuder, defended the game by saying that the game was intended to be an episodic series following the failure of the game’s Kickstarter campaign. As such, Dark Matter was sold at “a budget price” of $15 rather than the originally intended $30. He also contends that the game isn’t unfinished but this is just the result of it being an episodic game.

Of course, there’s no indication in the game’s description that it is intended to be episodic. Schreuder says that no reference to this being Episode 1 was intentional as the development of a 2nd episode would be dependent on the game getting enough support.

However, even Schreuder admits he was disappointed with the current ending and says that it will be patched to replace it. I guess that falls under better late than never. Of course, if the devs didn’t throw a “we ran out of money” screen after a random door but did a proper cliffhanger or ending, we probably wouldn’t be talking about this right now.

Sources: GOG Forums, Steam Forums