Shards Online / Legends of Aria
Setting: Fantasy / MMORPG | Developer: Citadel Studios | Platform: PC | Status: It’s complicated | Year of Campaign: 2014 | Funding via Kickstarter: $105,717 | Backers: 1,683
The inspiration for Shards Online was clear from the beginning: They wanted to create a sort of Ultima Online, but in 3D and with some modern elements. They aimed to entice players onto floating islands in space, each with its own rules for PvP, PvE, story, and so on.
However, even during the alpha phase, the developers at Citadel Studios revamped their concept and changed the name from Shards Online to Legends of Aria. The new plan: to develop a fully-fledged sandbox MMORPG with an open game world.
After another 2 years, the Early Access release on Steam occurred in August 2019. Only 1,150 people were online at peak time. The game was simply too unfinished. Nonetheless, the developers wanted to charge nearly 25 euros for access.
The switch to Free2Play in 2020 did not achieve the player increase that was surely hoped for. In December 2021, the company Blue Money Games bought the studio along with the game and aimed to make several changes to save the MMORPG. Among them was a change in the payment model, towards cryptocurrency and a Play2Earn concept.
At the same time, the original Legends of Aria was to be available as a Classic version, but these servers were so unpopular that they were shut down in December 2022. A comeback followed in May 2024, but only briefly. Since March 2025, Legends of Aria Classic has not been available on Steam.
The crypto variant named Britaria never made waves either. In summary, this is yet another failed MMORPG that funded its development via Kickstarter. For those who want to read a large part of this in detail, check it out here: Failed MMORPG dies twice, presents new version, but must postpone it immediately
