Make My MMO: Ashes of Creation Apocalypse is review-bombed, again, as Fig throws shade on Kickstarter

If Ashes of Creation Apocalypse thought it could avoid a review-bomb with a new Steam portal as Apocalypse hit early access this week, it quickly learned otherwise. Though the game is available off Steam now, the 200-ish reviews (a massive proportion of those who actually played it on Steam instead of through the game’s official portal) there shoved the battle royale test into the “mostly negative” zone thanks to players who are grumpy over the fact that the monetized battle royale, characterized as a test for the MMORPG’s combat, isn’t exactly the game they backed.

Our PvP columnist is currently playing Apocalypse and still liking it, though he says it’s not entirely clear in-game what has changed between the two versions, other than longer queues and reduced weapon damage. Stay tuned for his next column for more there!

In other MMO crowdfunding news, Zenith successfully raised $280K through its Kickstarter, Saga of Lucimia began shipping CE items, Albion Online tweaked the Percival patch, Project Gorgon announced “transmutation week,” and Star Citizen introduced a new ship.

Finally, get out yer popcorn because one of Kickstarter’s biggest rivals, Fig, blasted Kickstarter this week. “Crowdfunding games has been heading in a downwards direction. It has been for a long time,” Fig’s CEO told GIbiz. “The actual Kickstarter campaign format is somewhat to blame for the decline.” It’s a pitch for Fig’s model, sure, but it singles out Kickstarter as a serious problem.

“That’s why we’ve adopted this Open Access, where you’re funding alphas and looking at two or three milestones in the future. This is an evolving journey and you don’t know where it’s going to lead. What we’ve found is that by being transparent about that, and not trying to work around this rigid Kickstarter campaign structure, we’re earning people’s trust, gamers’ trust and setting expectations appropriately. As opposed to taking this format that everyone has used before which, frankly, sets developers up to fail. The format makes promises that developers just aren’t able to keep.”

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

Ashes of Creation Apocalypse

Recent MMO crowdfunding news

Inside Star Citizen talks about the mission sharing, weapon attachments, and ship rental features of alpha 3.7 - While much of Star Citizen's alpha 3.7 update has been about caves and first-person mining, there's much more coming with the next update, and this week's Inside Star Citizen video…

Crowfall details the War of the Gods milestone and what it means for an alpha release - A major milestone is on the horizon for Crowfall in the form of War of the Gods. This collective name for several updates is not only meritorious because it adds…

Cyberpunk MMO Zenith just raised more than a quarter of a million dollars on Kickstarter - For the last many weeks, we've been covering the Kickstarter drive of Zenith, a cyberpunk MMO courting both PC and VR players. As of today, that drive is over, and…

Chronicles of Elyria’s Kickstarter-versary crowdfunding drive sees nearly every extra item unlocked - Last week we told you about an anniversary/crowdfunding event for Chronicles of Elyria which was set to open up new items and new gameplay features like astral dreaming and straight-up…

City of Heroes’ Homecoming rogue servers are now blocking copyright-infringing characters - Players on the City of Heroes Homecoming servers enjoyed a privilege they were never afforded during the game's pre-shutdown run time: While NCsoft was draconian about cracking down on any characters…

Star Citizen unveils a new ship that lets players pull other players out of hyperspace - A new Star Citizen ship has been unveiled -- on Newsweek of all places -- and this one is a doozy, offering the ability to let pilots of the ship…

Shroud of the Avatar’s Release 70 brings Halloween themed fun on September 26 - As we near October, it stands to reason that more of Halloween will start to invade the MMO space. Shroud of the Avatar looks to be among the first out…

Ashes of Creation’s Apocalypse hits early access today – are you trying it out? - Ashes of Creation’s Apocalypse battle royale title is officially launching into persistent early access today as planned. As it announced last week, Intrepid Studios is calling Apocalypse a "standalone prequel"…

Ship of Heroes previews its Military Weapons powerset ahead of the CCT beta - Still waiting for Ship of Heroes character creation tool beta? We are too! That's still coming, according to the game's latest post, and the next entry will indeed focus on…

Choose My Adventure: Diary of a Legends of Aria desert wildman - The desert sun rakes its fingers over my bronzed skin like I am the coals of a forge. Indeed, I am the forge: the thing that produces strong weapons, not…

Dual Universe’s new podcast talks up the features of alpha 2 and 3 - Do you have 30-odd minutes to yourself and want to hear about Dual Universe? Then your extremely specific needs are met as a podcast from the devs is now online…

Infinity: Battlescape posts one last Kickstarter update before its Steam Early Access release - It's been an exceedingly long time since we last heard from Infinity: Battlescape, the multiplayer combat-focused chunk of the original space sim MMO Infinity. The project first opened up crowdfunding…

Camelot Unchained continues work on the Minstrel and other support classes - Camelot Unchained was all about taking its first steps into support classes last week and this week's update is certainly no exception. The regular dev report checks in with news…

Star Citizen

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.
City of Heroes Homecoming (Homecoming) – Monthly donation rounds.
City of Titans (Missing Worlds Media) – Successful KS; Issue 0 delayed into 2019.
Day of Dragons (Beawesome) – Kickstarter ends Sept 30
Descent Underground (Descendent Studios) – Successful KS.
Destiny’s Sword (2Dogs) – Kickstarter successful June 2019.
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. Abandoned, then not?
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. Alpha 2.
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)
Oath (Ready-Up) – Kickstarter funded.
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.
Path of Titans (Alderon) – Indiegogo.
Planet Nomads (Craneballs) – Kickstarted, early access launched sans multiplayer.
Playcraft (Bebop Games) – Kickstarter funded May 2019.
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.
RAW (Killerwhale) – Kickstarter canceled by Kickstarter.
Starfighter Infinity (Ben Olding) – Kickstarter funded. Early access.
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.
Ship of Heroes (Heroic) – Kickstarter canceled, beta expected before 2020.
Shroud of the Avatar (Portalarium) – Soft launch July 2016. Launch March 2018.
Spycursion (Defun) – Kickstarter unsuccessful.
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.
Zenith (Ramen) – Kickstarter successfully funded.

Crowfall

Yes, some crowdfunded MMOs most definitely do succeed. But others crash and burn, and you need to hear about the whole spectrum of games that sought your money early in exchange for the promise of input and transparency. And that’s exactly what Make My MMO does every Saturday. Help us keep ’em accountable, would ya?