Chronicles of Elyria
Setting: Fantasy / MMORPG | Developer: Soulbound Studios | Platform: PC | Status: Allegedly still in development | Year of Campaign: 2016 | Funding via Kickstarter: $1,361,435 | Backers: 10,752
When the Kickstarter campaign for Chronicles of Elyria launched in May 2016, the world was still a good place. The project, revolving around aging heroes and a realistic game world, sounded so exciting that more than 10,000 backers raised over $1.3 million. By October 2019, it was even said that almost $8 million had been raised.
Now, 9 years later, a release is still not in sight. On the contrary, Chronicles of Elyria has gone through such an absurd development hell that the accusation of a scam arose repeatedly, suggesting the project aimed to take money from backers without providing any corresponding return. Here are just a few highlights:
- A certain part of the revenue came from the limited-time acquisition of virtual lands from the pre-alpha of Chronicles of Elyria. Cost: $65 to $3,500.
- In the middle of development, they had to switch engines because the initially used Virtual-World platform, SpatialOS, was said to be too expensive and inflexible.
- Despite the enormous crowdfunding revenue, there were recurring cash shortages to advance development. It didn’t help that the release date planned for June 2016 kept getting pushed back. Lack of a publisher who believed in the project led to the first layoffs in 2018.
- When the first real gameplay footage of Chronicles of Elyria was shown in September 2019, many backers felt disillusioned. It looked bad and unfinished; nothing of the years of development was visible. The trailers released up to that point had painted a completely different picture of the MMORPG.
- The first playable pre-alpha left a disastrous impression in 2020 and was nothing more than a tutorial obstacle course.
- Shortly thereafter, the team was dissolved and development was temporarily halted.
- Later, the project’s main responsible person, Jeromy Walsh, explained that it was just a misunderstanding and that he would now work alone on Chronicles of Elyria.
- Walsh also stated that they would now work on a kind of spinoff called Kingdoms of Elyria for the backers.
- The subsequent outcry led the responsible parties to halt all communication with the community for the time being, closing official channels like the forums and the Discord channel. Backers threatened a class-action lawsuit. Legal proceedings ensued. To this day, not a single player has received their money back.
In the meantime, there have been occasional signs of life from Walsh, who in 2024 blamed the press for the problems and layoffs. Most recently, the developer struggled for months to successfully complete a website update. If they are already failing at that, there’s likely no hope for finishing the MMORPG.
