As we’ve been covering, Kickstarted MMORPG Fractured – now Fractured Online – announced that it’s being supported and published by Gamigo, and the response in the aftermath of that has been a bit mixed. Gamigo, after all, doesn’t have the best reputation in the MMO world; just in 2021, it sunsetted, abandoned, and jettisoned multiple titles from its roster, and that’s without even digging into its troubling history with the monetization of ArcheAge, which it lost custody of this past fall.
In any case, Fractured’s team has been working overtime addressing all the player concerns. Dynamight Studios’ Jacopo Gallelli posted a video last week about the transition and what Gamigo brings to the equation, and then over the weekend, he sat down for a stream with Gamigo’s Wes Conner and answered pretty much everything else players had brought up. One Redditor timestamped the whole video for every single topic in the hour-long talk so you can hop around if you like, but here are a few of the highlights from our listen-through:
- Gallelli says Gamigo’s help will make Fractured happen sooner thanks to the funding and larger team, with the objective now being a full release at the end of 2022, though that’s not guaranteed. A more detailed roadmap is on the way.
- Dynamight retains ownership of Fractured and the IP if Dynamight exits the relationship with Gamigo. Dynamight retains the IP; Gamigo does not own the IP. If the game for some reason fails, the contract would likely be ended and the game returns to Dynamight.
- Dynamight also retains control over the game’s monetization model, which is not to say that Gamigo has no input on it. Gallelli says these topics are deciding things together and than both companies are against heavy monetization, free-to-play, and pay-to-win on the game.
- Gamigo gets global distribution rights for the game in exchange for a portion of the distribution profits. Dynamight is allowed to continue seeking investors and other funding efforts. “We’re not here to change the vision of Fractured,” Conner says.
- There are no plans for IP-blocking; English, German, and French are planned for launch, with more languages being a possibility.
- Since the announcement, the game has seen 4000-5000 new accounts, without any marketing beyond the announcement. The game will be marketed more in the future once the game is more developed. There’s a potential for splitting US and EU players if the game gets too big for a single server.
- While Dynamight is still granting refunds under its original terms, it is not granting refunds over the publisher announcement. According to Gallelli, there has not been a significant exodus from the game, just a lot of forum noise; the huge influx of players (by the game’s standards) has far outweighed that.
- Expect the next testing phase in Q1 2022; the very tentative beta window is the first half of 2022. They’re still debating more persistent test phases.
- Console isn’t off the table, but they’re not focusing on it – PC is the focus. Yes, a Steam launch will eventually happen.
If you’re worried about the game, I think this video is worth a listen; I don’t say this lightly, but my read on all of this is that this deal is a net benefit for the game.
