Five years ago, a group of enterprising fans banded together to assemble and run an improved version of the classic MMORPG The Realm Online by working with the IP holders, Norseman Games. We even had an interview with one of the people responsible for the project. So it gives us no joy to announce that the people behind the project have announced that after five years, the relaunched version of the game will be shutting down on June 30th, and the reason is dreadful: There’s apparently been a breakdown in negotiations with the owners of the IP.
According to the letter sent to players by Realm Worlds, it appears that the the issues come step from the IP holder, which has apparently rebuffed offers to buy the IP even as the developers note they’ve been working on a volunteer basis for the past year.
“The current agreement we have with Norseman Games gives us no path to acquiring the IP,” the team writes. “This impedes our ability to direct more money into developing content for the game. As revenue from the game decreases year over year, the effective percentage of revenue that goes to Norseman increases, making it harder still. None of the LLC members have been compensated for over a year. We had full intention of exploring every possibility to grow the player base, but without a way to acquire the IP this isn’t a workable arrangement.”
Players are promised that their data will not be lost, but the servers will be inaccessible at the end of the month. Our condolences to both the fans of the game and the dedicated team that has been keeping the title operating for this long; we can only hope this matter will be resolved positively.
