The tactical game Atlas Reactor just never worked. The title was released in 2016 for PC, proved to be a flop almost immediately, but was revived again and again: time and again, the business model changed, and in 2020 it even switched from PvP to PvE and gave the game a new name. But now it seems to be over for good: even the new variant “Atlas Rogue” did not work. Gamigo gives up.
What was the idea behind the game? Atlas Reactor was supposed to be an innovative game that would bring the troubled video game publisher Trion Worlds back up. They had a really rough time in 2016: the MMORPG ArcheAge was outdated, Rift and Defiance were getting old, and they urgently needed a hit to try something completely crazy.
In a YouTube video from 2016, the minds behind the game presented their game Atlas Reactor as a wild genre mix (via youtube):
- The developers said the game concept drew inspiration from XCOM: Enemy Unknown, League of Legends, and tabletop games like Warhammer 40k.
- The most important question in the design was: “How do you make a turn-based game where you play more than you wait?”
Ultimately, turn-based battles of 4-player teams emerged with gameplay reminiscent of XCOM, but as a pure PvP title like LoL:
- Each hero on a team could die an unlimited number of times. There were, like in LoL, numerous heroes to choose from.
- The team that achieved 5 kills first won – or the team with the most kills after 20 rounds
- Players could give commands in one mode and in the second mode watch how their commands played out. The modes broke down into further phases.
Changed the business model many times in search of success
In what ways did the game fail? The game failed in every possible way.
The game practically never had a significant player count on Steam, only when it was brand new in 2016 did it reach around 3,000 players for a few weeks, but they were gone quickly.
Atlas Reactor started as a title with a strange business model, calling it “Trial-until-you-buy”: players could only play a few heroes that rotated for free and had to buy the whole game if they wanted all freelancers available.
Quickly, they switched to a typical free-to-play model where players could buy heroes.
A company bankruptcy and a complete transformation from PvP to PvE
How often did it die?
- The first run of Atlas Reactor ultimately ended with the sale of Trion Worlds in 2018. Atlas Reactor was a flop for Trion Worlds and could not stop the company’s demise.
- The German company Gamigo is known for buying failed MMOs and keeping them running without massive expansions. They took over Atlas Reactor and let the ailing PvP title run for a while. But it was discontinued after a year, as they thought Atlas Reactor simply did not work as a PvP game. Gamigo brought the game back as “Atlas Rogue” and wanted to establish it as a PvE title.
- After 2 years, however, the lights go out here as well – the game’s Discord server announces that the servers will go offline on July 5, 2022, and stay offline. In-game purchases will no longer be accepted from now on.
Players always demand innovation, but bold gameplay is not rewarded in Atlas Reactor
What was the problem with the game? On Discord, you can now hear the complaints of the remaining players. They still love their game today and are sad and disappointed because Gamigo allegedly never listened to them and never implemented their suggestions to save the game.
Ultimately, though, Atlas Reactor was a game that only appealed to a few “truly” interested players. It faced similar difficulties as Artifact: The gameplay mechanics look so strange and technical when watched that they appear off-putting.
The game’s “innovation” of dividing rounds into phases feels unusual and counterintuitive. Ultimately, one really had to like the game to give it a chance.
Because the game never generated hype from the beginning and player numbers were low, a death spiral set in: the fewer people played it, the less it was talked about, the fewer new players tried it, the longer it took to find matches.
Now that everything is over, one has to wonder why Atlas Reactor lasted for 6 years. Apparently, there was a small, dedicated fan base that really enjoyed it. One can feel sorry for them.
A fan of Atlas Reactor was former MeinMMO author Jürgen Horn. He has a weakness for games that seem doomed to failure:
Atlas Reactor: First impression – Impossible idea, interesting gameplay
