Since the Kickstarter boom in the 2010s, there has been a whole host of developers wanting to finance their MMO through crowdfunding. But which games have actually been released? MeinMMO delivers the reckoning after more than a decade.
Wasteland 2, Divinity – Original Sin, Pillars of Eternity … these are all role-playing games that successfully gathered a significant part of their funding through Kickstarter in the 2010s, which initiated a real crowdfunding boom in the gaming industry. The existence of games like Baldur’s Gate 3 or Avowed today can also be attributed to the successes of these projects.
The boom, however, did not stop at other genres either. From 2012, we counted more than 20 MMO(RPG)s that have also made their way through Kickstarter in the past 14 years. But what has actually happened to all these projects? Which games have been released, which were discontinued, and which are still in development?
MeinMMO presents you with the – spoiler: quite sobering – reckoning below, starting with the oldest Kickstarter MMOs. Through the table of contents, you can jump directly to the MMO projects that interest you the most, if desired.
Star Citizen
Setting / Genre: Science Fiction / MMO | Developer: Cloud Imperium Games | Platform: PC | Status: Still in Development, Alpha | Year of Campaign: 2012 | Money raised via Kickstarter: 2,134,374 $ | Backers: 34,397
Star Citizen set a very high bar with its success on Kickstarter but only later transformed into a historical project of superlatives. More than 5.6 million backers have raised over 809 million US dollars through crowdfunding (via robertsspaceindustries.com) enabling a large team to work on Star Citizen for many years.
The release? There is still no fixed date. This also applies to the single-player spinoff Squadron 42. At least studio head Chris Roberts announced that Squadron 42 is set to be released next year. Star Citizen is expected to follow a year or two later – so 2027 or 2028.
That would be up to 17 years after the start of pre-production of Star Citizen in 2011 and up to 16 years after the start of the Kickstarter campaign in 2012. At that time, the plan was, by the way, to deliver the game in November 2014 (!) (Source: kickstarter.com).
The good news: Those who checked it out a long time ago may be pleasantly surprised at how much fun the current alpha of Star Citizen can be. This is mainly due to the updates over the past year or two. With alpha update 4.0, you could achieve, for example, a significant tech milestone for the SciFi MMO in 2024.
Following were the alpha updates 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3, which included, among other things, launcher 2.0, dynamic NPC conversations, new fauna, radiation, dynamic rain and snow, additional missions, and much more.
However, this should not distract from the fact that one can also look critically at the project and studio head Chris Roberts. For years, reports of poor management, large-scale waste of money, layoffs, and excessive overtime periods have repeatedly surfaced. Particularly disturbing were the insider reports from October 2024: SciFi MMO Star Citizen is said to be heading towards disaster despite 728 million dollars
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!