Kickstarted MMORPG sandbox Fractured has been teasing something big coming for the last month, punctuated by a promise from Dynamight’s Jacopo Gallelli earlier this week that he’d just signed a “big deal” to bail out the floundering sandbox, which was down to three unpaid staffers and a tiny playerbase. Well, now we know what it is: The studio has been acquired by a company called Happy Cauldron Games, which is led by Duncan “TaNaHaRa” Davis.
“Duncan is a passionate Fractured Online player who genuinely believes in the game’s vision and wants to enhance both its gameplay and technology,” Dynamight’s Jacopo Gallelli says. “Unlike a game publisher, he isn’t looking for quick monetization but is instead focused on long-term improvements. His passion for the game and commitment to its evolution make him the perfect fit to take Fractured Online to the next level.”
Gallelli and the other two Dynamight devs will join the Happy Cauldron Games team, which will also pick up additional new hires, including a community manager. He says that the game will be ported to a new backend engine and host called Coherence (same one used by Bossa’s Lost Skies), which will require “months of hard work” from devs “rewriting a large portion of the game’s code.” But he also makes clear that the new financial backing will allow the team to “revisit” many of the features the team simply hasn’t had the manpower to implement.
Gallelli does get a bit cheeky in his letter, saying “[Davis] didn’t buy Fractured Online to turn it into a crypto scam. I’m looking at you, commenters on MMO websites!” Unfortunately, that concern is very much a valid one in our industry, especially in light of the fact that Gallelli had given no other information until now and the whole thing sounded too good to be true; we’ve literally seen failing Kickstarter MMOs sell out to crypto outfits, including Legends of Aria and Crowfall. So far, however, this sale looks more like the situation with Ethyrial Echoes of Yore, which was bought out by a superfan and rescued, even though it’s still small.
Cross your fingers we’re right, and then settle in for a long wait because this kind of revamp is miles away.
