HeroEngine owner Idea Fabrik announced yesterday that it has made “several positive adjustments” in regard to its ongoing financial situation – namely, “reducing server costs, finish[ing] R&D and [its]development plan, complet[ing] some very important testing and code review, and continu[ing] to work on several other special things behind the scenes.” These new changes apparently include the resumption of HeroCloud subscription sales (“[w]e will be completing a special Thank You to our community, then normal sales will return on 31 January”), a new website design, DirectX 11 support, and a new “market” to vend assets.
Idea Fabrik did not allude to The Repopulation’s Above and Beyond, which it had obliquely and seemingly unjustly accused of failing to pay royalties last month, except to say, “Not all of these have been resolved and the primary cause of the partial shutdown is still being worked on.” The concomitant financial issues and server outages drove The Repopulation offline in December and caused serious concerns about its future.
The Repopulation’s JC Smith told forumgoers that HeroEngine’s announcement had “nothing to do with” A&B’s.
“[M]y guess is they wanted to get it out first. This seems like typical PR to me. A similar promise with regards to sales was made last month and missed. And DirectX11 was promised to be ready last year. We have been given no indication to date that anything significant has changed at IF from where its been over the past few months.”
Last week, Smith reiterated his vow to announce the game’s future plans toward the end of the month.
“We still plan on releasing an update which goes into our near and future plans soon. It’s an important announcement though and we likely won’t make it until near the end of the month. That gives any last minute opportunities a chance to come to fruition, as well as gives us a bit of time to coordinate some things that need to go along with the announcement. The most important things to note in the meantime is that we are not cancelling the game, and are not going to run another Kickstarter.”
In regard to HeroEngine, he opined, “Our stars may no longer be aligned, and there are probably some damaged relationships and/or trust issues on both sides. But I don’t think either of us is out to hurt the other.”
