A week ago, Camelot Unchained studio City State Entertainment stunned MMORPG players – and its own Kickstarter backers – with the news that it was working on a second game, a multiplayer co-op title called Project Colossus aka Final Stand: Ragnarok. Colossus uses the same custom-built engine as Camelot and will release first, and though developers say they’ve acquired additional outside investment to expand the studio to continue work on both games at a quickened pace, it created a bit of a firestorm across the MMO genre, particularly as players pointed out how delayed CU itself really was.
Now, in a letter to backers tonight, CSE’s Mark Jacobs has apologized for the poorly communicated reveal and promises a big update coming tomorrow, including a public viewing of the Cherry Keep siege that’s been shown to date only behind closed doors. He also promises a clear roadmap for CU specifically.
“Folks, I know you are/were upset by what you saw last Friday and for that I accept full responsibility and apologize. On this Friday, February 7th, I’ll be doing another update where I will explain, in a lot of detail, everything that we have been and continue to work on for Camelot Unchained. I’ll be reviewing all the major improvements to Camelot Unchained and the technology that powers the game.
“However, those are only words and frankly, that’s not good enough. So, instead of more talking I’ll be showing our improved Cherry Keep siege. This will show just how far we have come with Camelot Unchained and how we have met our goal of being able to handle a large-scale siege (1.2K NPCs, 200+ trebuchets, magic mortars, spells, etc.) of a 9.5M block building from C.U.B.E. This was the #1 goal of Camelot Unchained’s Kickstarter campaign, a 500+ person siege that doesn’t run as a slideshow. This is the kind of siege we all dreamed of back in 2013 and here it is working today. Not tomorrow, not next year, and especially not soonish, but today.
“And after that, I’ll be sharing our immediate roadmap for Camelot Unchained for the next few months. And by Camelot Unchained, I mean Camelot Unchained. While there will be a few engine things (ongoing testing of Linux-based servers), the vast majority are for CU only, not Final Stand: Ragnarok. I know you’ll be pleased with what you see in the schedule.
“Once again, I most deeply apologize for the concern that the work on FS:R has caused so many of you. I hope that you will, at least, give me the chance to prove that Camelot Unchained has not only gotten all the attention we said it was getting, but all the attention it needs to launch as soon as possible. And I humbly ask you to give me the chance to prove that I have all of our best interests at heart. If you do, you will be rewarded by what you see from us in the coming months. And as president of City State Entertainment, I promise you that Camelot Unchained progress will continue and thanks to the work we’ve done to date, and the additional support we have received from our investors, it will speed up.
“But no matter what you choose to do, we thank you for your support and if you leave us, hope you return in the future.”
Just to be clear, we asked Jacobs about the mail specifically tonight, and he told us he’s not asking anyone to re-send refund requests, so if you’ve already sent one in and mean to continue with it, your 90-day waiting period is still going. “I just hope that they will change their mind,” he told us. Just do bear in mind that they are asking for specific info to complete those refunds:
“In order to process your refund, please send us your first and last name, all transaction ID(s), address, phone number, and email address attached to the CSE account and your PayPal account used when you made the purchase. If they are separate emails, please send an email from each account for verification. All refunds are processed by PayPal, can take 90 days to process, and can carry fees (per our refund policy https://store.camelotunchained.com/faq).”
Incidentally, we have a copy of the refund request reply email from beta one – prior to Colossus’ reveal – and the information requested appears to be absolutely identical. [Update: MOP tipster Wilhelm has noted that some of the info might be difficult to come by, given that some credit card companies do not keep transaction IDs that old, but Jacobs says that people should send in what they do have and support will try to match you by email address.]
We’ll be discussing the game and how we think CSE should move forward in tonight’s Massively Overthinking, so stay tuned!
In any case, the takeaway here is that you’ll need your TID or some serious persistence, but refunds are indeed happening.
