Earthlock: Festival of Magic relaunched as EARTHLOCK

This is a cool story.

Snowcastle Games, the indie studio behind RPG Earthlock: Festival of Magic, refused to rest on their laurels when the game initially released in 2016. The company felt that many of their planned features that did not make it into the final release were too important to abandon. So, instead of cashing in on the game and moving on to the next project, they reinvested their earnings from sales of Earthlock: Festival of Magic right back into the original game. After a year and a half of additional development, they are re-launching the game as EARTHLOCK.

Though they have revamped the game in tons of ways, the team is now offering the upgraded version absolutely free to anyone that bought the original release, for an entire year. For a variety of legal reasons, the exchange process for physical copies gets a little convoluted, but here are the details:

“If you own a digital copy, then you already have permission to download this latest version of EARTHLOCK.

If you own a physical copy on PS4 or Xbox One, you’ll have to provide proof of purchase by shipping your copy to Snowcastle Games in order to receive a new download code. Here’s how to do that:

• Write your email address on a piece of paper.
• Write on the same paper if you want a digital key for Steam, PS4 (North America) or Xbox One.
• Put the paper with your email address in an envelope.
• Put the Earthlock: Festival of Magic disc in an envelope.
• Send it to our office (address below).
• Be patient and eventually you will receive an email with a new game key.

Company address:

Snowcastle Games

Dronningens gate 16

0152 Oslo

Norway

“We understand that it’s a bit of a hassle, but console manufacturers can only offer us new codes if we provide physical proof that the discs have been collected and destroyed,” said Snowcastle Games CEO Bendik Stang. “This will give us a lot of manual work, and it is a pity to waste all those lovely discs, but at least we treat all our customers the same.”

Regardless of hoops that physical disc owners might have to jump through, this is still incredibly cool. Not many companies take time to go back and rework their titles after the initial wave of patches is complete. Kudos to Snowcastle for believing in their game, and working to make it align with their initial vision.

For interested new players, EARTHLOCK is avaiable on PS4, Xbox One, Switch and Steam.