Take a giant previous sip of espresso. Universal Conquest, an area grand technique recreation “primarily based on private interviews with alien abductees” and allegedly in growth for over a decade, has been voluntarily de-listed from Steam by its solo dev, following what they describe as “a proposal we could not refuse”.
And breathe. Universal Conquest first appeared on Steam in June final 12 months, promising a 4X/RTS hybrid set within the far-flung area future the place you “carve your empire out of the cosmos”. It was nothing if not bold, that includes land, air, sea and area fight, over 5000 completely different models, a procgen universe, species customisation, after which in fact that particular sauce: “Developed via the consultancy of alien abductees and their contacts.”
The developer of Universal Conquest is listed as Reptilian Games, which can curiosity David Icke, alongside Darkweb Warlocks. They additionally appear to go by the title “Dan” and, when replying to damaging feedback on Steam, “Big Chungus.”
So are you able to “Strech [sic] your mighty arms throughout the huge reaches of area and dominate the universe”? Tough luck:
“We’re being pressured to take the sport offline,” begins a brand new Steam announcement, which appeared as all earlier developer blogs on the sport have been deleted. “We cannot reply too many questions, however regulation enforcement is aware of. And that is a part of the issue.”
The developer claims “we acquired a risk that wasn’t fully lawful in nature to close down the sport and take away it from sale. Because the risk was an actual, legitimate risk—and now we have not directly reported it to regulation enforcement already—we felt that it was sensible to not permit the product to be offered anymore for the bodily safety of our customers and employees and relations.”
Universal Conquest is not obtainable for buy on Steam. But issues do not cease there. The developer says they do not have the cash “to combat one thing this huge in court docket,” earlier than including that “we in all probability could not combat it in court docket regardless.”
Here come the Men in Black? Apparently so, as a result of “there’s greater fish within the sea than us” and now we get to the actual drawback: “Some of the data we made the sport with wasn’t imagined to be shared with the general public […] I’ll say that it was for fully good causes that this info wasn’t being shared, and that the ‘disclosure’ state of affairs has a contented ending. Regrettably, this recreation didn’t.”
So a recreation made in consultancy with alien abductees is right here implying that a few of the info the sport contained was of such Earth-shattering significance that darkish forces have conspired to close it down. Forces past the regulation!
It was all an excessive amount of for one participant, who took to the sport’s overview web page to share his personal expertise with Universal Conquest. “This recreation is a rip-off, the overwhelming majority of the developer’s claims are false, and I used to be banned from discussions for questioning him,” says Wyxian. “He claims to have gotten a bomb risk and ‘a proposal he cannot refuse, however can’t substantiate both of those claims and is being extraordinarily imprecise about them which makes him appear like a liar.”
Wyxian goes on to drop additional bombs, claiming that the sport “isn’t made with any precise info from actual aliens” and the developer “takes Internet larpers calling themselves aliens on random boards at face worth”. They name on the developer to show their numerous claims and that they are involved with them aliens, earlier than accusing them of fabricating causes to desert the sport.
Amazingly sufficient, developer Big Chungus responds to say “we did obtain a bomb risk”, earlier than accusing Wyxian of “discuss[ing] smack” and in reality being emblematic of the “depressing” evaluations and posts “that killed this challenge”. Wait, I believed it was the Feds?
Big Chungus graciously concedes that “Star Wars: Total War or no matter can have the limelight” now, they usually need nothing extra to do with videogames. “I spent 15 years on video video games, constructed the sport everybody wished to play, and this was the suggestions I obtained. Meditate on that.” They finish by providing a “phrase scabble [sic]” to Wyxian: “kFcu Ouy.”
I’m unsure we want the NASA codebreakers for that one. You can not purchase Universal Conquest and the Discord has disappeared, although the official web site stays dwell. Because the web is the web, some are already spreading the hearsay that this was taken down by shadowy figures for holding actual details about aliens.
That might presumably be the case. Or this might all have been one man’s fever dream. All I can say for positive is… the reality is on the market.
