Indie development studio Ys Net will be refunding Shenmue 3 Kickstarter backers who expected to receive a Steam key. The game suddenly became a one-year Epic Games Store exclusive title last month.

The development studio has now decided that those who were expecting to receive a Steam key on the day of its release will be getting a full refund. The company will use extra funds it receives from Epic Games to nullify the lost revenue, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney confirmed on social media.

According to a recent statement, giving out Steam keys to backers who expected them required "coordination with the sales policies of the involved companies" which was "untenable". As a result, development studio Ys Net decided to not make a day one distribution option for Steam keys.

Those who are willing to accept the Epic Games Store key will have an option to receive a Steam key once the one-year exclusivity deal is over. Kickstarter backers must manually select this option in the survey to receive the Steam key.

While some backers praised the refund policy essentially powered by Epic Games, most argued that the poor situation was the direct result of Epic Games' interference with the exclusivity deal that nobody asked for.

Details concerning the refund request process will be announced on the game's Kickstarter page at a later date. The game suddenly became a one-year Epic Games Store exclusive title last month.