Dual Universe
Setting: Science Fiction / MMO | Developer: Novaquark | Platform: PC | Status: Offline | Year of Campaign: 2016 | Funds raised on Kickstarter: 565,983 € | Backers: 8,166
The sandbox MMO from Novaquark landed significantly later than Star Citizen on Kickstarter but came with a comparable promise of a persistent MMO universe and celebrated its final release in September 2022. A great opportunity to mobilize all the sci-fi fans who have been waiting for years for Chris Roberts’ game.
And the foundation was there: In Dual Universe, everything is player-created, there are enormous freedoms, impressive battles and a remarkable level of detail.
Nevertheless, the game on Steam had only 51 percent positive reviews. Recently, there were fewer than 10 Steam users online in the universe at the same time (via steamdb.info). In the summer of 2025, the inevitable end followed.
One reason was significant problems with the economy. Additionally, despite the enormous freedoms, there was hardly anything to do in practice and many issues from the early days remained, partly due to years of missing content updates. At the same time, the developers still wanted a monthly subscription for the game. Not a good combination.
OrbusVR
Setting: Fantasy / MMORPG | Developer: Orbus Online | Platform: PC, Oculus | Status: Offline | Year of Campaign: 2017 | Funds raised on Kickstarter: $34,524 | Backers: 554
Anyone who has walked through Skyrim’s Helgen with a Virtual Reality headset knows how incredibly fascinating such a huge fantasy world is when experienced through the right VR headset. A similar promise was made by OrbusVR, but for a real MMORPG.
As exciting as the topic of virtual reality is, players often find themselves stuck in a niche. This was also true for OrbusVR, which was released on Steam on April 23, 2019, but could never attract more than 337 players simultaneously to its servers.
This year, the developers are drawing the consequences. On February 10, 2025, sales of the game were halted. On April 6, 2025, the servers went offline. The website and Steam product page are therefore now just virtual skeletons.
