In a sudden and unexpected move, the recently launched co-op farming and life simulation game, Roots of Pacha, has been removed from Steam. The absence of the game’s Steam page had left many in the gaming community puzzled, but a recent announcement from the game’s official Twitter page has clarified the cause of this disruption.
Update (May 13th, 2023 at 6pm PT): Crytivo responded to the announcement by the devs of Roots of Pacha on Twitter:
Dear Fans,
We want to address the recent developments concerning the Roots of Pacha game and its removal from Steam. We understand this news may be frustrating for our fans, and we assure you, our team is working diligently to resolve the situation as quickly as possible.
The Crytivo team has worked hard on making Roots of Pacha a success. We’ve closely collaborated with the Soda Den team for 3 years, providing support and guidance throughout the journey leading up to the game’s launch on April 25th.
On April 27th, just two days after the successful release, we received an unexpected message from the Soda Den team, informing us they were claiming to unilaterally rescind the contract we had worked under for three years, treating it as void. This disregarded all of our work and the agreed-upon revenue-sharing contract terms. Shortly after, they removed our access to the Steam page for our team.
Per Valve Policy, if there is a dispute between parties, they remove the page until the dispute is resolved.
We sincerely appreciate your support and understanding during this challenging time. Rest assured, we are committed to resolving this situation and ensuring that Roots of Pacha returns to Steam. We will continue working closely with all parties involved, including Valve, to reach a satisfactory resolution.
Of course, we have so much more to share about this incredible journey, and we stand proudly behind the services we have provided.
We’re not seeking anything but the benefit of the contract we worked hard under for three years. This is an extremely challenging time for our team.
Thank you for being a part of our family and for your unwavering support.
Crytivo Crew
The following text is what was contained in the original post.
In a tweet, the Soda Den team, the developers of Roots of Pacha, stated:
As you may have noticed, the Roots of Pacha Steam page is temporarily offline.
We are sad to report that we have been engaged in a dispute with Crytivo over the rights to Roots of Pacha. We worked hard to amicably resolve our issue with Crytivo internally. Instead of working with us to address the issue, Crytivo went to Valve and authorized them to remove Roots of Pacha from Steam without our knowledge or consent.
While we work out our issues with Crytivo, we’ll continue developing Roots of Pacha with the same energy we’ve always put into it. We couldn’t be any more thankful for the overall reception of the game.
We’re currently working on a roadmap and are excited to say it’ll be ready for you next month! We’re cautiously optimistic that Roots of Pacha will return to Steam very soon.
– Soda Den Team
The dispute is with Crytivo, a game publisher founded in 2013 by Alex Koshelkov. Crytivo’s initial claim to fame was their Kickstarter campaign for the game “The Universim”.
In early 2020, Crytivo expanded its business by publishing third-party games. Their first third-party release, ‘Serin Fate’ (developed by Vethergen), made its debut via Steam Early Access in March 2020. Over time, Crytivo has continued to partner with several indie development studios and solo developers, such as Blue Meridian, Soda Den, Ironheart Studios, Rumata Lab, and Dazar Play, to publish games like ‘Roots of Pacha’ and ‘Villagedom’.
Roots of Pacha had received positive reviews for its innovative take on the farming sim design, and the recent events have left us hoping that the developers and publisher can resolve their issues.
Included below are images of the statements that were released.
Crytivo’s Statement
Roots of Pacha’s Statement
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