When last we checked in on Artificial Core and its upcoming MMO Corepunk, the Amsterdam- and Kyiv-based studio admitted that it was hunkered down in “emergency mode” as some of its workers were still stuck in Ukraine “under heavy bombardment” as a result of the Russian invasion that has now continued for the last three months. Readers will recall that Corepunk itself has been delayed repeatedly; it originally planned a beta for Q4 2020, then delayed to spring 2021, then delayed to August 2021, then to December 2021, then to spring 2022, so it was already well off track, but the danger to staff clearly derailed it further.
“Don’t worry about Corepunk,” the studio said. “We’re continuing our work, and the game is going to be great.”
That was March. A month later, the game’s community manager told Discord participants that the game was still in development and the company would be officially announcing the closed beta so that no one would miss the dates. But as of May, the only official word out of the studio is that it’s cutting off support for the Russian region.
“For a long time now, we’ve put a lot of care and effort into our Russian-language communications. In return, we gained the participation and support of our community. A love of all things gaming united us. War. The damage and pain caused by war are profound. A majority of Artificial Core’s employees are Ukrainian, and we cannot ignore current events. We have decided to suspend support for the Russian region. On May 17, the Russian website, forum, and Discord channels will be disabled.”
The English-language Discord isn’t too fussed about the loss of its Russian counterparts, but the fans are nevertheless worried about the status of the game; last winter, Artificial Core told players that there’d be a “progress report” in early spring with a plan for a late spring closed beta, but with less than a month to go in spring, neither has happened. But of course, quite a bit has happened since then, so it’s unlikely spring is happening regardless. Hopefully, the team is safe first.
