As it hopes for some shot at redemption in the wake of its cancelation, legal battle, and hurried resurrection, Chronicles of Elyria is putting out a side game, Kingdoms of Elyria, before the long-promised Kickstarted MMORPG. For backers who sank a lot of money and faith into Soulbound Studios, seeing what the reformed team could come up with for Kingdoms no doubt will be vital to rebuilding trust.
They won’t have long to wait, either, as the alpha test for Kingdoms of Elyria is kicking off next week on July 6th. Announced earlier this year following the crash-and-burn of Chronicles of Elyria in 2020, Kingdoms of Elyria is intended to be a multiplayer colony simulator that will lead up to the greater MMO.
Don’t expect to hear a lot about this test, however. Soulbound is keeping this early alpha under a strict NDA, and only backers with Alpha 1 access will be allowed to try it out. The studio said that future alpha tests will open up to Alpha 2 backers as well.
“We know the first Alpha test won’t be perfect, but it marks an important milestone and a new approach we’re taking to development,” the studio said.
Source: Chronicles of Elyria. Thanks Pepperzine!
Chronicles of Elyria stunned MMO gamers in 2020 by announcing it was out of money, had laid off the devs, had closed Soulbound Studio, and had ended development on the game. Though CEO Jeromy Walsh later retracted much of that and said the game was still in production with volunteer staff, the gamers who’d backed it for $14M+ in crowdfunds pressed on with legal action. In 2021, Walsh has been releasing new videos on the production he says is happening, though the focus has been more on spinoff game Kingdoms of Elyria.
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