The 2020 downsizing of MMOs and multiplayer titles into singleplayer ones continues today with the announcement that Pagan Online will shift to a solo-only experience on August 4th.
MMO players will recall that Pagan Online was a Wargaming-published buy-to-play OARPG that launched last summer. The $30 title was actually well-liked around here, apart from some of its hero-unlock mechanics, some of which were addressed post-launch. But the game doesn’t seem to have caught on, and now it appears that Mad Head Games and publisher Wargaming are parting ways, as Mad Head says it will run the game as a “single-player experience hosted on Steam” and take over “daily operations” and tech support going forward.
“Despite the support from our players and the best efforts of our teams, supporting multiplayer servers for Pagan Online is no longer sustainable,” Mad Head admits. “Mad Head Games does not currently have plans to add more content to Pagan Online, although that may be reconsidered once we settle into a single-player mode.”
Steam reviews were already turning bad before the announcement as players complained about lag and lack of updates, but now they’re deep in “mostly negative” as players who bought the game for its online experience are now livid that a game with “online” at the end won’t support that content. Do note, however that you can keep your online progress locally.
“You will be able to transfer your progress in Pagan Online if you choose to. Since our last update, your progress is currently stored both locally and server-side. After we roll out our new single-player client on August 4, there will be an option to ‘restore’ your progression on the log-in screen. Simply insert the invitation Steam key you received to claim your progress.”
So, you won’t be able to play the game with your friends anymore – if you even were in the first place, as that would put you in some ultra-rare company, given the game’s monthly peak of 20 concurrent Steam players – but at least it’ll live on as a singleplayer romp.
