Way the heck back in 2017, we covered a sci-fi MMOFPS called Pantropy. The pitch was that it was a sci-fi faction-based MMO shooter with “mechs and focus on building and crafting.” The game ran two Kickstarters, one that was canceled and a reboot that pulled in almost $90,000 US to fund development. By early 2019, it had gone into early access on Steam.
So where is it now by early 2021? Still mired in early access, I’m afraid. According to the statement on the game’s Steam page, the final version was supposed to launch “before Q4 2019,” though obviously that didn’t happen. The Kickstarter update from May 2020 makes it clear that developer Brain Stone downsized its team and thereby missed its 1.0 launch window. “We had a rather rough time during the last year and had to shrink the team drastically due to the lack of sales and the overall delay of the development,” the studio wrote. One developer went further, telling Discord participants that the company was out of money and that the team was working on “side projects” to avoid formal bankruptcy and the “total loss/failure” of the game.
However, the developers have been somewhat active with Steam updates in the interim. Last June, the company said it was still “determined to finish developing Pantropy” and mapped out a big update, including singleplayer and co-op play. Subsequent team missives have discussed progress on creatures and mech AI, androids and maps, mining and bases, and troublesome sub-systems. The most recent post, made just a few weeks ago, homes in on creature polish. In other words, it’s alive, and somebody is still working on it, but the $90,000 in crowdfunds are long gone and it’s a hard sell at $19.99 right now under the circumstances.
