According to a former lead from Unchained Entertainment, nearly half of the developers who had worked on the MMORPG Camelot Unchained have been laid off.
Update from February 1, 2025: Following the report on the layoffs at Unchained Entertainment, some supporters are contemplating taking legal action against the developer if there isn’t a detailed timeline for Camelot Unchained in the foreseeable future (via massivelyop.com). To this day, no official has specifically commented on the status quo of the MMORPG.
The only reaction came from Community Manager Travis Parley. He stated that he has forwarded player feedback to studio founder Mark Jacobs and that there will be a response within the next 90 days. That doesn’t sound good for Camelot Unchained, does it?
Who is reporting the layoffs? Andrew Meggs was a co-founder of City State Entertainment, which later became Unchained Entertainment. Before that, he worked as Lead Client Engineer for EA Mythic on Warhammer Online. Since October 2022, he has been a Software Engineer at Meta.
That very Andrew Meggs writes in a post on linkedin.com that layoffs had already occurred at the studio of the MMORPG Camelot Unchained last week: “Unfortunately, I heard that >40% of Unchained Entertainment (formerly City State Entertainment) were laid off last week. About 24 out of 55 employees.”
Camelot Unchained has been in development for ages – here is a trailer from 2016:
It looks bleak
What does this mean for Camelot Unchained? The MMORPG, for which there was a Kickstarter campaign in 2013, should have been released long ago. However, the team led by industry veteran Mark Jacobs (Dark Age of Camelot) has repeatedly got sidetracked, struggled with financial issues, or got distracted by other projects like the PvE-MMO Final Stand: Ragnarök.
After a long development period and many delays, there was suddenly a surprising status update from the chief developer in March 2024: Camelot Unchained is set to be finally released in late 2025. However, due to the tumultuous development and the fact that the last update on the official website of the MMORPG is from January 2024, we were skeptical.
The current report has certainly intensified the skepticism. It remains to be seen whether the remaining team is sufficient to release the MMORPG in a reasonable state. A representative from massivelyop.com has already contacted Mark Jacobs and requested clarification. As soon as there is an official statement, we will update this report.
What do you think: Will Camelot Unchained really make it? Share your thoughts in the comments! For those looking for exciting online role-playing games that could actually be released in a reasonable state this year, you should definitely check our overview: From Aion 2 to Chrono Odyssey: Outlook on the MMORPG Year 2025
