Fans of tiny older MMORPGs on the verge of extinction have cause for a bit of celebration this spring: A new patch to five-year-old Spiral Knights this week that updated branding to a new company appears to be the work of Grey Havens, a new company dedicated to preserving old games.
Spiral Knights/Puzzle Pirates Community Manager Eurydice told players back in April that the game had been handed over to Grey Havens, “a group of former Three Rings employees who have come together to keep the games and communities we love alive and happy.” Grey Havens’ official site explains, “Grey Havens operates games created by Three Rings Design back in the glorious first decade of the new millennium. Rather than allow those games to disappear forever, we have assembled a doughty crew to keep them operational for as long as we can.”
The MMOs on the list include both Spiral Knights and Puzzle Pirates along with several other games that the company has since made open source. Both MMOs were originally built by Three Rings, which was bought out by SEGA back in 2011. The name of the company is a reference to The Grey Havens in Tolkien’s universe, a transitional port between Middle-earth and the Undying Lands. Indeed.
