Post by Morreion on Oct 6, 2014 17:19:45 GMT -5
Lots of games start development but don't reach release- here's some of them you may remember hearing about.
Dawntide
Remember an indie UO-type Medieval sandbox that had 3 or 4 devs?
Dawntide development officially on hiatus (Massively)
Last December we told you about Dawntide's impending beta server closure and temporary hiatus. Working as Intended was getting ready to go to work on a large-scale world revamp for the fantasy sandbox, and the firm said the open beta server would be down for a couple of months.
According to an update on Dawntide's official website, that hiatus is now going to last quite a bit longer because the dev team has run out of funding. "We're still working on finding new investors, but this will take time. In the meanwhile, we have officially stopped all development," the announcement says. "We hope to be able to resume it in the not too distant future, but as of right now we cannot say when that will be or whether it indeed happen at all."
The official site is gone now.
End of Nations
This game was a MMORTS that was one of Trion's original game projects along with Rift. As development dragged along, they tried to turn it into a MOBA! Warning sign!
End of Nations development is 'on hold,' Trion says (Polygon)
End of Nations development is "on hold" as developer Trion Worlds focuses on other projects, a representative from Trion told Polygon today.
The official End of Nations' site is down as of this writing, and Trion's official site no longer mentions the Windows PC game. Its official Facebook page is still live but hasn't been updated since August 6, 2013.
According to Trion's statement, development ceased late last year.
"As we informed EON's community last fall, internal development on End of Nations was put on hold in late 2013 while we evaluated potential paths forward for the title," the statement reads.
The official site is now gone.
Gods & Heroes
This game was a Greco-Roman mythological setting for an MMO where you could have your own group of minions along with a tent camp where you could equip the perfect group for your quest...the original devs sold the game assets to another company, who released the game early.
Gods & Heroes letter brings dire tidings (Massively)
Is that smoke on the horizon? Goths marching to the gates? Probably not, but for Gods & Heroes, it may very well seem that way. The newest dispatch from the development team has admitted that the game no longer has a development team and hasn't for quite some time. As the letter puts it, it was a choice between keeping the game alive as it stood or letting the team go, and without investors, the latter seemed like the better option.
So what's next for the game? The forum thread on the letter claims that the game's servers will keep running and funding them isn't an issue, but no new development will be taking place until the funding can be found for a free-to-play conversion. As the game hasn't come anywhere close to recovering the cost of bringing it to market, that doesn't bode well for the future. Whatever happens next, this is certainly a dark day for the Roman game, and we can only hope that better news is on the horizon.
Once again, their website is down.
Grimlands
A post-apocalypyic MMOFPS-
Grimlands' Kickstarter cancelled, devs in talks with investors (Massively)
Would you like the good Grimlands news first or the bad Grimlands news first? That's nice, but you're getting the bad news first because this isn't a democracy. The post-apocalyptic shooter's Kickstarter campaign has been cancelled.
The good news is that DRAGO is apparently in talks to secure more substantial funding from an unnamed group of backers. Grimlands' project page updated this morning with the following announcement: "We have been contacted by several investors and are in active discussions to finish the game with them. This would not have been possible without this campaign and without your support! Of course we will keep you up to date on any development!"
MAG
An MMOFPS.
MAG shutting down in January (Massively)
MAG used to be a thing here at Massively. We wrote about it a fair amount way back in 2010, and some of us played a fair bit of it around that same period. Sadly, Sony has decided to shutter the PlayStation 3 shooter effective January 28, 2014.
The news came via the official PlayStation Twitter feed earlier today. MAG development studio Zipper Interactive closed its doors in March of 2012.
Otherland
Otherland was going to be a meta-MMO with many settings...
Otherland developer RealU lays off 'most of its staff' (Massively)
Otherland developer RealU has laid off "most of its staff," according to a community manager's post on the game's official forums from earlier this month. The upcoming sci-fi cyberpunk title based on the works of author Tad Williams was set to be published by free-to-play giant gamigo. According to the post, gamigo "had and has very limited influence on this decision."
RealU is a subsidiary of German publisher dtp, which "is currently in insolvency." The post indicates that RealU continues to hold the rights to Otherland in both Europe and North America, and it is currently looking into opportunities to finish the title "at another location."
Ultima Forever
Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, also known as Ultima Forever or Ultima4Ever is a free-to-play, cross-platform, online, action role-playing game developed by Mythic Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It is formally a part of the Ultima series. Information was previously released by BioWare in mid-2011 and more information was released on July 11, 2011. It was officially announced at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 12, 2012 and it was fully released for iOS on August 7, 2013. The game was shutdown on August 29, 2014.
'Ultima Forever' Shutting Down on August 29th (TouchArcade)
It's been a bit of a rough ride for the now-defunct studio previously known as Mythic Entertainment. The studio was closed in late May following the release of the universally panned Dungeon Keeper [Free], and now their other project, Ultima Forever [Free] will be shutting down on August 29th.
This only serves to really show what sucks the most about games as a service in the free to play world: All of your time, and potentially money, that you invested in a game can totally vanish when the company hosting it all decides to pull the plug. It's somewhat inevitable for these games to go offline eventually, but, remember, Ultima Forever was released less than a year ago.
Dawntide
Remember an indie UO-type Medieval sandbox that had 3 or 4 devs?
Dawntide development officially on hiatus (Massively)
Last December we told you about Dawntide's impending beta server closure and temporary hiatus. Working as Intended was getting ready to go to work on a large-scale world revamp for the fantasy sandbox, and the firm said the open beta server would be down for a couple of months.
According to an update on Dawntide's official website, that hiatus is now going to last quite a bit longer because the dev team has run out of funding. "We're still working on finding new investors, but this will take time. In the meanwhile, we have officially stopped all development," the announcement says. "We hope to be able to resume it in the not too distant future, but as of right now we cannot say when that will be or whether it indeed happen at all."
The official site is gone now.
End of Nations
This game was a MMORTS that was one of Trion's original game projects along with Rift. As development dragged along, they tried to turn it into a MOBA! Warning sign!
End of Nations development is 'on hold,' Trion says (Polygon)
End of Nations development is "on hold" as developer Trion Worlds focuses on other projects, a representative from Trion told Polygon today.
The official End of Nations' site is down as of this writing, and Trion's official site no longer mentions the Windows PC game. Its official Facebook page is still live but hasn't been updated since August 6, 2013.
According to Trion's statement, development ceased late last year.
"As we informed EON's community last fall, internal development on End of Nations was put on hold in late 2013 while we evaluated potential paths forward for the title," the statement reads.
The official site is now gone.
Gods & Heroes
This game was a Greco-Roman mythological setting for an MMO where you could have your own group of minions along with a tent camp where you could equip the perfect group for your quest...the original devs sold the game assets to another company, who released the game early.
Gods & Heroes letter brings dire tidings (Massively)
Is that smoke on the horizon? Goths marching to the gates? Probably not, but for Gods & Heroes, it may very well seem that way. The newest dispatch from the development team has admitted that the game no longer has a development team and hasn't for quite some time. As the letter puts it, it was a choice between keeping the game alive as it stood or letting the team go, and without investors, the latter seemed like the better option.
So what's next for the game? The forum thread on the letter claims that the game's servers will keep running and funding them isn't an issue, but no new development will be taking place until the funding can be found for a free-to-play conversion. As the game hasn't come anywhere close to recovering the cost of bringing it to market, that doesn't bode well for the future. Whatever happens next, this is certainly a dark day for the Roman game, and we can only hope that better news is on the horizon.
Once again, their website is down.
Grimlands
A post-apocalypyic MMOFPS-
Grimlands' Kickstarter cancelled, devs in talks with investors (Massively)
Would you like the good Grimlands news first or the bad Grimlands news first? That's nice, but you're getting the bad news first because this isn't a democracy. The post-apocalyptic shooter's Kickstarter campaign has been cancelled.
The good news is that DRAGO is apparently in talks to secure more substantial funding from an unnamed group of backers. Grimlands' project page updated this morning with the following announcement: "We have been contacted by several investors and are in active discussions to finish the game with them. This would not have been possible without this campaign and without your support! Of course we will keep you up to date on any development!"
MAG
An MMOFPS.
MAG shutting down in January (Massively)
MAG used to be a thing here at Massively. We wrote about it a fair amount way back in 2010, and some of us played a fair bit of it around that same period. Sadly, Sony has decided to shutter the PlayStation 3 shooter effective January 28, 2014.
The news came via the official PlayStation Twitter feed earlier today. MAG development studio Zipper Interactive closed its doors in March of 2012.
Otherland
Otherland was going to be a meta-MMO with many settings...
Otherland developer RealU lays off 'most of its staff' (Massively)
Otherland developer RealU has laid off "most of its staff," according to a community manager's post on the game's official forums from earlier this month. The upcoming sci-fi cyberpunk title based on the works of author Tad Williams was set to be published by free-to-play giant gamigo. According to the post, gamigo "had and has very limited influence on this decision."
RealU is a subsidiary of German publisher dtp, which "is currently in insolvency." The post indicates that RealU continues to hold the rights to Otherland in both Europe and North America, and it is currently looking into opportunities to finish the title "at another location."
Ultima Forever
Ultima Forever: Quest for the Avatar, also known as Ultima Forever or Ultima4Ever is a free-to-play, cross-platform, online, action role-playing game developed by Mythic Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts. It is formally a part of the Ultima series. Information was previously released by BioWare in mid-2011 and more information was released on July 11, 2011. It was officially announced at the San Diego Comic-Con International on July 12, 2012 and it was fully released for iOS on August 7, 2013. The game was shutdown on August 29, 2014.
'Ultima Forever' Shutting Down on August 29th (TouchArcade)
It's been a bit of a rough ride for the now-defunct studio previously known as Mythic Entertainment. The studio was closed in late May following the release of the universally panned Dungeon Keeper [Free], and now their other project, Ultima Forever [Free] will be shutting down on August 29th.
This only serves to really show what sucks the most about games as a service in the free to play world: All of your time, and potentially money, that you invested in a game can totally vanish when the company hosting it all decides to pull the plug. It's somewhat inevitable for these games to go offline eventually, but, remember, Ultima Forever was released less than a year ago.
