Pathfinder Online
Setting: Fantasy / MMORPG | Developer: Goblinworks | Platform: PC | Status: Cancelled | Campaign Year: 2012 | Raised on Kickstarter: 1,091,194 $ | Backers: 8,732
The MMORPG by Goblinworks is one of the most successful Kickstarter projects in the gaming sector and promised a classless system, player housing in an open world, no grind, as well as an important role for player trading – all within the popular Pathfinder franchise, which was to receive two great RPGs with Kingmaker and Wrath of the Righteous.
However, when the MMORPG was in alpha in 2015, alarm bells were already ringing: Rights holder Paizo announced that it had to lay off almost all studio staff. Development was expected to continue if the funding issues could be resolved. The subscription that could be closed even during the alpha was supposed to help with that.
Thus, the small core team managed to survive until 2021. On November 28, the servers had to be shut down permanently. One reason was that the developers never managed to provide an enjoyable gaming experience over the years, let alone publish the game. More about that: MMORPG raised over 1 million dollars on Kickstarter – Ends permanently in 2021
The Repopulation
Setting: Science Fiction / MMORPG | Developer: Above and Beyond Technologies / Idea Fabrik | Platform: PC | Status: Cancelled | Campaign Year: 2012 | Raised on Kickstarter: 53,169 $ | Backers: 709
The fact that “The Repopulation” was able to successfully complete its Kickstarter campaign was probably only due to the low target amount of 25,000 $. Not many wanted to support the sandbox MMORPG back then. At least: In a second campaign on kickstarter.com in 2014, things looked much better, as 2,270 backers brought in another 176,525 $.
The latter could very well have been the case, as “The Repopulation” was temporarily regarded as a spiritual successor to classics like Star Wars Galaxies and Ultima Online. However, nothing ultimately came of it, which probably had a lot to do with the problematic development history of the game. There was already a kind of early access alpha from 2014.
In November 2015, MeinMMO reported on problems with the Hero Engine as well as with the operators of the engine, which would delay the desired release later that year. By the end of the year, the alpha servers even had to be shut down.
In 2016, the clash between the two parties went into the next round. In the meantime, the developers even worked on another game called Fragmented, which was supposed to take place in the world of “The Repopulation” but utilize the Unreal Engine 4.
A supposed solution emerged in March 2017. The folks at Above and Beyond Technologies had sold the rights to “The Repopulation” to Idea Fabrik. The alpha servers therefore went online again. However, the development of the MMORPG progressed only slowly in the following years, culminating in a complete cessation of update announcements.
Not until January 2023 was there official confirmation on Steam that the work on the game had been discontinued. And with the project, the individuals responsible for Idea Fabrik also disappeared (via massivelyop.com). The Steam product page for “The Repopulation” has, of course, also been unreachable since the termination.
