Post by Morreion on Aug 10, 2021 10:59:31 GMT -5
Camelot Unchained boss rebuts theory that its studio finances are in disarray (Massively)
Camelot Unchained says it has no plans to license its engine, is still paying refunds (Massively)
Dedicated readers of MassivelyOP already know that Camelot Unchained has become an MMO saddled with controversy over the last couple of years. Originally Kickstarted in 2013, it has seen multiple major delays, the founding of a second studio, and the announcement of a second game using its custom-built engine. It’s also run some pretty impressive mass-battle tests in its now three-year-old beta one phase and is by all accounts still under development.
However, the ongoing refund situation has been a thorn in City State Entertainment’s side since even before 2020 as players on Reddit and in our own comments have sought the refunds they were promised, some for over a year. Anyone who reads our comments knows how incredibly annoying it is to see every Camelot article about actual game progress followed by a thread that dissolves into a sea of complaints about delinquent refunds and haranguing of CSE, and we understand that some of the angry backers have turned to straight up harassment and toxicity behind the scenes, which is never OK.
But we’re still baffled as to why some of those refunds still haven’t been processed and why company has been willing to burn all its hard-won reputation and goodwill over what appears to be a clerical problem. That was one of the reasons we gave CU our “stormiest future” award in 2020.
I’d like to be able to tell you straight from the horse’s mouth what’s going on over there, but the second of our 2021 interviews with the studio on this very topic was never actually returned to us; our last formal response from CSE was in May. As we already noted in the March interview on alchemy, that second interview was focused on the studio funding situation rather than on design; specifically, we asked about the state of funding for both games, how long development would be sustainable on current funding, how hiring was going, how big the studio is, when the game would advance from beta one, when the remaining NDA would drop, when to expect launch or a minimum viable product, whether the game’s monetization could change, how big a playerbase was needed to sustain the game financially and gameplay-wise, what happened to Final Stand: Ragnarok and its “first access” last December, why refunds were so slow, how many more refunds were outstanding, and whether and how the studio had responded to apparently futile backer claims to the state attorney general.
However, the ongoing refund situation has been a thorn in City State Entertainment’s side since even before 2020 as players on Reddit and in our own comments have sought the refunds they were promised, some for over a year. Anyone who reads our comments knows how incredibly annoying it is to see every Camelot article about actual game progress followed by a thread that dissolves into a sea of complaints about delinquent refunds and haranguing of CSE, and we understand that some of the angry backers have turned to straight up harassment and toxicity behind the scenes, which is never OK.
But we’re still baffled as to why some of those refunds still haven’t been processed and why company has been willing to burn all its hard-won reputation and goodwill over what appears to be a clerical problem. That was one of the reasons we gave CU our “stormiest future” award in 2020.
I’d like to be able to tell you straight from the horse’s mouth what’s going on over there, but the second of our 2021 interviews with the studio on this very topic was never actually returned to us; our last formal response from CSE was in May. As we already noted in the March interview on alchemy, that second interview was focused on the studio funding situation rather than on design; specifically, we asked about the state of funding for both games, how long development would be sustainable on current funding, how hiring was going, how big the studio is, when the game would advance from beta one, when the remaining NDA would drop, when to expect launch or a minimum viable product, whether the game’s monetization could change, how big a playerbase was needed to sustain the game financially and gameplay-wise, what happened to Final Stand: Ragnarok and its “first access” last December, why refunds were so slow, how many more refunds were outstanding, and whether and how the studio had responded to apparently futile backer claims to the state attorney general.
Camelot Unchained says it has no plans to license its engine, is still paying refunds (Massively)
Earlier this month, Camelot Unchained studio City State Entertainment came under fire when its leader objected to a YouTube video that speculated the company was on the verge of collapse. CSE’s Mark Jacobs said that video mischaracterized the company’s finances since the YouTuber didn’t have all the facts. But as we pointed out, the reason the community didn’t have all the facts was that City State hasn’t provided sufficient transparency, extending even to us, as the studio had reneged on an entire transparency-oriented interview with us because we refused to withdraw one of the questions at its request.
In response to a question on the next beta phase for the Kickstarted MMORPG, he declines to give a date for the next leg and the fully playable gameloop that he’d originally hoped to get done by the end of summer. “Dates only serve to put a stick in it somewhere that eventually you end up picking up,” he argues, suggesting that the company isn’t working hard to earn backer money anymore and investors are paying for the game, so the gist here is that they don’t feel obligated to give dates they suspect are wrong. (Camelot Unchained was originally Kickstarted in 2013 and has been in “beta one” since 2018.) [After publication, Jacobs disputed our characterization, saying that he meant that giving dates would be the right thing to do if the team were making a bigger push to raise money from the public, but it’s not.]
And as for refunds? “I am continuing to pay refunds,” Jacobs says, repeating that he’s paying them when he’s the office. He does not, however, address any of the open questions on refunds we and other media and players have asked. We ourselves have asked for clarity on how many refunds have been completed and how many are outstanding and why CSE has not invested time or money into speeding this along since some backers have been waiting more than a year and a half. (This has been an extremely sore point with the MMO community for a long time now, and it’s baffled most of our community as well.)
