Make My MMO: WoW’s esports crowdfunding, Legends of Aria’s spring delay

This week week in MMO crowdfunding, Blizzard is making its debut in this column, as it officially announced that it will be partially crowdfunding World of Warcraft’s upcoming esports prize pools. Esports fans will already be aware that other companies – including Riot, Valve, and Hi-Rez – have utilized community sales and contributions to bolster prize pools before, but that didn’t stop the WoW fanbase from going ballistic on the suggestion. Thanks for giving me another chance to use the money elemental pic, Blizz.

Meanwhile, Legends of Aria delayed its Steam-specific early access release until spring and pushed out a small patch for existing players, Shroud of the Avatar raised eyebrows with its $6999 cash shop package, Ashes of Creation plotted another leg of Apocalypse testing, Crowfall mapped out its road to true alpha, Star Citizen talked hoverbikes and lady toons, and Elite Dangerous players managed to crash their own servers with their biggest community event ever – in fact, we’ve been touring Elite ourselves in Choose My Adventure.

Read on for more on what’s been up with MMO crowdfunding over the last couple of weeks and our roundup of all the crowdfunded MMOs we’re following!

Pantheon concept art

Recent MMO crowdfunding news

Blizzard lays out World of Warcraft’s esports 2019 plans, will crowdfund part of prize pools - Although Blizzard may have cut back on esports support for Heroes of the Storm, World of Warcraft's esports scene is back and bigger than ever in 2019, and the studio…

Star Citizen: Hoverbikes, female character models, and item insurance - Who do you love now? HOVERBIKES. Yes, one of the key bits from this week's Star Citizen Around the Verse episode focuses on the design and development of hoverbikes. Sorry,…

Ashes of Creation: Apocalypse plans open beta 2 for the end of January - Didn't get your fill of Ashes of Creation's Apocalypse battle royale last round? Here comes another beta event to cap off the month, running from January 24th to 27th. Intrepid…

ArtCraft outlines Crowfall’s (surprisingly short) road to alpha 6.0 - Even as a Crowfall backer, I've been occasionally confused about the game's test status, especially after it missed two of its original planned soft-launch windows in the last couple of…

Legends of Aria’s Steam early access launch is now slated for spring - The testing through early access continues for Legends of Aria, and that includes figuring out the schedule for the game's patches and ultimate release. The latest news from the team is…

Path of Exile details the caster-heavy class breakdown in the Betrayal league - With every Path of Exile league, the designers take the time to dissect the overall balance of classes found throughout the game in various permutations, and Betrayal is no exception to…

Pantheon maps out 2019, promising new website, Faerthale development, and more - Brad McQuaid's Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is kicking off 2019 with a new edition of its newsletter that recaps 2018 - including our own hands-on at PAX East (tl;dr: We…

Camelot Unchained recaps reabilitation, trebuchets, dances, and ongoing testing - The Friday updated for Camelot Unchained wasn't actually posted until Monday, but hey, we'll take it, am I right? City State Entertainment's Tyler Rockwell recaps the ongoing beta one phase…

Choose My Adventure: The lonesome job of star charting in Elite Dangerous - Today's edition of Choose My Adventure features results that were both a landslide and extremely close. On the one hand, most people suggested that I trade in my current ship…

Dark and Light is closing down 70% of its early access servers - Snail Games' early access MMO Dark and Light has suffered a few growing pains during its development. The company originally announced it was resurrecting the 2004 MMO back in 2016;…

Shroud of the Avatar plans a hefty cash shop overhaul, includes $6999 package to support episode 2 - Shroud of the Avatar's business model is apparently getting a bit of an overhaul. As the game's latest newsletter explains, Portalarium is changing things up to better align with other…

So many people showed up for Elite Dangerous’ Distant Worlds 2 event that the servers went boom - Elite Dangerous' massive Distant Worlds 2 expedition is officially underway. Nearly 11,000 players - and developers! - ultimately signed up for the voyage, which set out yesterday. As we've previously…

Crowfall devs dig into optimization issues, campaign balance, and more in new interview - Are you a Crowfall fan who loves Artcraft's regular Q&A videos but finds that they always leave you wanting more? Then boy are you in for a treat because Crowfall…

Elite Dangerous expedition

1st Day down of my journey with the DW2 Expedition. Here is one of the pics I took on the way. from EliteDangerous

Campaigns and crowdfunded MMOs we’re watching

3001SQ (Société des Mondes Virtuels) – Kickstarter unsuccessful, dev halted in 2018.
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.
Codename Reality (Orode) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
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.) – Open donations.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media) – Successful KS; Issue 0 delayed into 2019.
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
Divergence Online (Stained Glass Llama) – Three campaigns; now in KS early access.
Dogma: Eternal Night (Prelude Games Factory): Kickstarter. Probably dead.
Dragon of Legends (Thrive Games) – Successful Kickstarter.
Dual Universe (Novaquark) – Kickstarter funded, donor platform. Backer alpha.
Eco (Strange Loop Games) – Funded, now in alpha.
Edengrad (Huckleberry Games) – Kickstarter funded; in early access.
Elite: Dangerous (Frontier Developments) – Funded and fully launched.
Empyrion Online (Eleon) – Kickstarter canceled; launched on Steam early access.
Endless Trials (Fire Hurts) – Kickstarter canceled.
Epic Space (EpicSpace.net)
EverFeud (PSB) – Kickstarter canceled.
Ever, Jane (3 Turn Productions) – Now in open beta.
Fractured (Dynamight) – Kickstarter successful. Pre-alpha.
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) – KS canceled; Indiegogo. Canceled w/ refunds.
Infinity: Battlescape (I-Novae Studios)
HEX (HEX Entertainment) – Funded and launched.
Legends of Aria (Citadel Studios) – Kickstarted as Shards Online. Early access.
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) – Open donations, no end date.
Novus AEterno (Taitale Studios)
OrbusVR (Ad Alternum) – KS funded March 2017. In early access.
Overpower (Hydrant Games) – Kickstarter unfunded; heading to early access.
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (Visionary Realms) – 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.
Project Oasis World (POW) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
Pumpkin Online (Monique) – Downgrading from MMORPG.
Temtem (Crema) – Kickstarter fully funded; now in alpha.
The Exiled (Fairytale Distillery) – fka Das Tal; KS 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; in  early access but not active dev.
RUiN (Tarhead Studio) – Kickstarter successful.
The Stomping Land (Alex Fundora) – Abandoned.
Sacrament (Ferocity Unbound) – Kickstarter failed; Patreon ongoing.
Saga of Lucimia (Stormhaven) – Indiegogo. Intermittent pre-alphas.
Shadow’s Kiss (Clockwork Throne) – Ongoing Patreon, Kickstarter funded.
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium) – Soft launch July 2016. Launch March 2018.
Squadron 42 (Cloud Imperium) – Beta delayed until at least 2020.
Star Citizen (Cloud Imperium) – Ongoing donations/packages. Backer alpha.
TUG (Nerd Kingdom) – Totally abandoned without a word. Now considered a scam.
Vigor Roads (NeuronHaze) – Kickstarter unsuccessful; early access planned for 2017.
War of Rights (Campfire Games) – Successful Kickstarter; in early access.

Star Citizen