Coreborn started with big ambitions and great plans. Behind the project was, among others, the storytelling genius Hauke Gerdes. Now the development is being stopped, just a month after its release on Steam. MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus looks back on the short lifespan of the survival game, which actually had a lot of potential.
What kind of game is this?
- Coreborn: Nations of the Ultracore was presented in early 2023. The game is based on the pen & paper world Ultracore, created by ex-Rocket-Beans Hauke Gerdes. The storytelling genius was also the creative director of Coreborn.
- In a giant interview with MeinMMO, the creators explain their ambitions: survival games are indeed cool, but something is still missing, like the big player such as WoW in MMORPGs. Here is where Coreborn should find its place.
- In the first test, the MMO proved to be a decent survival game: you start with nothing, gather resources, build houses, and fight against creatures, increasing in difficulty. Now, however, the game is already at its end.
This is the news: Coreborn was released on July 18, 2023, in Early Access on Steam. The full release was then on June 19, 2024.
Almost exactly one year after the Early Access launch and a month after release, Blankhans, the development studio that was specifically founded for Coreborn, announced its closure.
The decision was made collectively, writes Hauke Gerdes in the blog post. He also states: Coreborn will not be further developed. The game will remain online, and anyone who wants to play it can still do so. However, there will be no more updates.
Coreborn has recently struggled for players. The game attracted only about 800 people even in Early Access. Recently, only up to 50 players logged in simultaneously (via steamcharts). On Steam, the game currently has a rating of 30% and is thus “mostly negative.”
Wasted potential and too early a launch lead to a premature end
Looking at the reviews on Steam, many players think there: Coreborn is actually cool. The world is beautiful, the idea is quite appealing, as there are too few survival games with a fantasy setting.
However, Coreborn simply has too little content. The UI feels unfinished, there is too little to discover, and there is nothing worth playing for. The devastating criticism: with the RPG Maker, a better game could have been created with less effort.
I wouldn’t be so strict with Coreborn. I was just as excited back then as other players. From Hauke, I know that the man really knows what he’s doing and can create worlds that make you want to immerse yourself. Survival games are truly my genre.
During the first testing, I was also sure: there’s potential in it, Coreborn has what it takes to be the next Valheim, but with a much larger world. What ultimately pulled the plug on the game was a lack of development time.
Even in Early Access, there was little to do, and I wanted to wait until the game was “finished.” However, it was probably already a mistake to give Coreborn to players in that state. As others also note: there were hardly any reports about the game, neither from the press nor from players.
And how could there be? The Early Access was mostly empty. Even I hardly played because there were not enough reasons to do so.
The release ultimately did not bring what I had hoped for. No big RPG world where I can build my own house and play my character. With two or three more years, Coreborn would certainly have worked. As it stands, it is a failed project that sounded too good – and a disappointment, similar to Blizzard’s survival project: Blizzard’s secret survival game has been canceled – employees are said to be working on other projects
