This week in MMO crowdfunding, Fractured ramped up its Kickstarter dev blogs as it nears the finish line of its crowdfunding effort, which ends in just four days. As I type this, it’s less than $10,000 away and I think it’s looking good. The studio posting up the details of its Star Wars Galaxies-esque player city system probably helped.
Meanwhile, Albion Online teased its upcoming crafting changes and recapped its largest battle ever, Elite Dangerous saw a teensy patch, Shroud of the Avatar prepped the upcoming patch, we took a look at Legends of Aria’s closed beta, and Star Citizen had a dose of drama as a backer took CIG to court over its refund policy and effectively lost, having been sidelined to arbitration. It capped off the week with a fresh concept ship sale, too.
Finally, Camelot Unchained’s Mark Jacobs did update backers last night on the current state of the build, as the game’s beta was delayed an additional few weeks over its crash rate. “Testing overall has been great,” he says. And yes, the crash rate is still coming down – higher than he says he’s seen in some live games, but not good enough for him.
Read on for more on what’s been up with MMO crowdfunding over the last week and our roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following.
Fractured’s Kickstarter
Recent MMO crowdfunding news
Star Citizen backer took CIG to small claims court over his refund request – and lost - The Star Citizen refunds subreddit is often the home of big words and tall tales, but Redditor firefly212 did more than just talk: He actually tried to take Cloud Imperium…
Fractured’s player city system is the evolution of Star Wars Galaxies - MMORPG sandbox Fractured has five days to secure another 16K to make its $116K Kickstarter goal - and it just broke the $100K barrier as I'm typing this sentence. Dynamight…
Crowfall improves performance by changing terrain - It's far too early in Crowfall's testing to worry about optimizing the game's frame rate and overall performance, but there's a difference between "optimizing" and "improving." The latest change made…
Star Citizen is working on the AI patrols to make griefing much harder, reveals medical concept ship sale - On this week's episode of Star Citizen's Around the Verse, Sandi Gardiner and Chris Roberts recap "emergent gameplay" events recorded by the community, including a humorous take on the Cry…
OrbusVR hosts another free weekend starting today - We should warn prospective players of OrbusVR ahead of time that the game's new free weekend will not include a free VR headset. If you want to play the game,…
Fractured’s Kickstarter stretch goals include a dungeon crawler inside an asteroid - Sitting at about 80% funded with under a week to go, Fractured's Kickstarter campaign may come down to the wire in the end. Even so, the studio has unveiled its…
Temtem discusses Kickstarter backer rewards, November PC alpha, and 2019 early access - If you backed Temtem's successful Kickstarter, now is the time to collect at least some of your rewards. Spanish developer Crema has posted up detailed instructions on how to access…
Saga of Lucimia updates its four-year-old grouping manifesto - It's a little strange to consider that Saga of Lucimia has been around in development for four years now, but that's the gestation period of an indie MMORPG for you.…
Crowfall’s latest patch notes from the future video reads off 5.7 notes - The latest edition of Crowfall's regular Patch Notes from the Future is not looking very far into the future. It's actually close to looking into the present because patch 5.7…
Chronicles of Elyria starts to pull its game systems together for a full-featured alpha - Chronicles of Elyria is starting to take all of the pieces that it has been crafting for its ambitious fantasy MMO and pull them together to make an actual game.…
Happy birthday, Albion Online – you launched one year ago today - Can you believe it's been a whole year since hardcore sandbox Albion Online officially launched? I cannot, but that might be because its separate Steam launch wasn't that long ago. Sandbox Interactive…
Fractured pivots from global to regional servers as it pushes toward its Kickstarter goal - Quite often, you hear MMO gamers lament that their communities are artificially separated into different servers, with all of the problems that that entails. A single-shard server seems to be…
Fractured is hosting a livestream on crafting and building today - Want to know more about crafting and building in Fractured as the game has passed its 75% funding mark? Good news, you'll have a chance to find out more about…
Shroud of the Avatar’s newsletter covers the mysterious comet and player-created dungeon tools - Strange sights abound in Shroud of the Avatar right now. "Astronomers across New Britannia have noted that the approaching comet has agitated the creatures of Novia and Hidden Vale, making…
Camelot Unchained nears beta as its crash rate drops to ‘acceptable’ levels - "From what we've seen so far, we're in really good shape." Mark Jacobs hasn't given us a firm start date for Camelot Unchained's Beta 1 yet, but from the sound…
Ashes of Creation’s subreddit has been taken over by Intrepid Studios - Concern and alarm has been raised among the Ashes of Creation community this past week as four members of Intrepid Studios, including CEO Steven Sharif, were granted moderation privileges for the…
The Stream Team: Looking at Legends of Aria’s closed beta - Alpha is but a memory from the past -- Legends of Aria has moved on to closed beta. That means Massively OP's MJ needs to dive in and see how…
Camelot countdown
Campaigns and crowdfunded MMOs we’re watching
3001SQ (Société des Mondes Virtuels) – Kickstarter unsuccessful. Work continues.
AdventureQuest 3D (Artix Entertainment) – Raised 368k; beta began Oct 2016.
Albion Online (Sandbox) – Launched July 2017, hit Steam May 2018.
Antraxx (Team Antraxx) – Kickstarter canceled.
Ascent: The Space Game (Fluffy Kitten Studios) – Successful KS. Fully launched 2016.
Ashes of Creation (Intrepid Studios) – Successful KS. Alpha zero.
Broke Protocol (Cylinder) – Unsuccessful KS. In free early access.
Camelot Unchained (City State) – Kickstarter successful; open donations/packages.
Caribbean Conquest (Invenio) – First KS canceled, second ended unsuccessfully.
Contested Space (Zon)
Crowfall (ArtCraft) – Kickstarter win, open packages, Indiegogo crowdfunding ongoing.
Chronicles of Elyria (Soulbound) – Kickstarter successful, open packages.
Citadel of Sorcery (MMO Magic, Inc.) –Â Open donations.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media) – Successful KS; launching fall 2018.
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
Divergence Online (Stained Glass Llama)Â –Â Three campaigns; now in KS early access.
Dogma: Eternal Night (Prelude Games Factory): Kickstarter over, donor preorder packs.
Dragon of Legends (Thrive Games) – Successful Kickstarter.
Dual Universe (Novaquark) – Kickstarter funded, donor platform. Pre-alpha.
Eco (Strange Loop Games) – Funded, now in alpha.
Edengrad (Huckleberry Games) – Kickstarter funded; in early access.
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments) – Funded and launched.
Empyrion Online (Eleon) – Kickstarter canceled; launched on Steam early access.
Epic Space (EpicSpace.net)
Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions) – Now in open beta.
Fractured (Dynamight) – Kickstarter ends July 25.
Global Adventures (SubaGames) – Kickstarter funded.
Gloria Victis (Black Eye Games) – Open donations, no end date; in early access.
Greed Monger (Greed Monger) – Abandoned, now allegedly in refund process.
Grim Dawn (Crate Entertainment) – Funded and launched.
Guardians of Ember (Runewaker) – Funded and launched.
Guns of Icarus (Muse) – Funded and launched.
Hero’s Song (Pixelmage) –Â KS canceled; Indiegogo. Canceled w/ refunds.
Infinity: Battlescape (I-Novae Studios)
HEX (HEX Entertainment) –Â Funded and launched.
Legends of Aria (Citadel Studios) – Kickstarted as Shards Online. Alpha ended.
Life is Feudal (Bitbox): Indiegogo ended. Currently in beta.
LUX (Chimera) – Kickstarter canceled.
Maestros of the Anthymn (String Theory) – Kickstarter canceled.
Maguss (Maguss) – Indiegogo successful; open beta.
Mekria (Infinity Online Studios) – Kickstarter canceled.
Midair (Archetype Studios) – Kickstarter successful.
Nebula Online (Mizar Games) Kickstarter canceled; launched in November.
Neo’s Land (NeoJac Entertainment) –Â Open donations, no end date.
Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios)
OrbusVR (Ad Alternum) – KS funded March 2017. In early access.
Overpower (Hydrant Games) –Â Kickstarter unfunded; heading to early access.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (Visionary Realms) –Â Open donations. Pre-alpha.
Pantropy (Brain Stone GmbH): First Kickstarter canceled, second funded.
Pathfinder Online (GoblinWorks) – Doom, mostly.
Planet Nomads (Craneballs) – Kickstarted, early access launched sans multiplayer.
Pixel Starships (SavySoda)
Project Gorgon (Elder Game) – Kickstarted in three tries + Indiegogo. Early access.
Pumpkin Online (Monique) – Downgrading from MMORPG.
Temtem (Crema) – Kickstarter fully funded.
The Exiled (Fairytale Distillery) – fka Das Tal; 2015Â KSÂ unsuccessful. Early access.
The Flower of Knighthood – Kickstarter canceled.
The Realm: Reawakened (Stephen Nichols) – Ongoing GoFundMe.
The Repopulation (Idea Fabrik) – Kickstarted twice by A&B. Back in alpha.
ROKH (Darewise) – Kickstarter canceled; now in early access.
RUiN (Tarhead Studio) – Kickstarter successful.
The Stomping Land (Alex Fundora) – Abandoned.
Sacrament (Ferocity Unbound) – Kickstarter failed; Patreon ongoing.
Shadow’s Kiss (Clockwork Throne) – Ongoing Patreon, Kickstarter funded.
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium) – Successful KS. Soft launch July 2016. Launch March 2018.
Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium) – Ongoing donations/packages.
TUG (Nerd Kingdom) – In middle of year-long revamp after funding surge.
Vigor Roads (NeuronHaze) – Kickstarter unsuccessful; early access planned for 2017.
War of Rights (Campfire Games) – Successful Kickstarter; in alpha.
