Chronicles of Elyria – the Star Citizen of MMORPGs

Chronicles of Elyria (PC) is undoubtedly one of the most interesting MMORPGs currently in development. It is as ambitious as Star Citizen and aims to offer a kind of simulation, creating a second life alongside the real one. But there are also doubts.

Chronicles of Elyria is one of those games that can be well advertised with individual ideas and concepts:

This is the game where you will gain weight if you eat too much!
This is the game where your character ages and dies – and you can buy a new one for real money

Such news and individual ideas have circulated around Chronicles of Elyria in recent months and years. We at Mein MMO have been reporting on the game since September 2015. However, Chronicles of Elyria is still not graspable for many.

Chronicles of Elyria aims to herald a renaissance of role-playing

At its core, it is an MMORPG simulation: the goal is to build a realistic, functioning fantasy world. To throw players into it and allow them to interact with the world and everything in it.

In a video “What is Chronicles of Elyria?” the team at Soulbound Studios described its mission: The team aims to spark a renaissance of role-playing. To create a game where players can embody a role. This is the mission they have set for themselves.

Chronicles of Elyria – Pre-Alpha, in the middle of the dream phase

Currently, the game is in a phase where hardcore fans project their dream ideas onto Elyria: Chronicles of Elyria is currently only running in a Friends&Family Alpha – most fans cannot play it yet.

This is supposed to change in 2018 and 2019 – by a planned release at the end of 2019, gradually more players are expected to join.

However, the release is still a long way off, but the community is already active. There is an active German fan site for Chronicles of Elyria. And as seen in the video, the landed nobility is already playing “Game of Thrones”, recruiting followers and distributing the yet undeveloped world.

In the vision of fans and developers, Chronicles of Elyria is certainly on its way to becoming a huge, ambitious, and groundbreaking project. Just like Star Citizen. But unlike Star Citizen, the funding is lacking.

Doubts about whether Chronicles of Elyria can achieve all this

While Star Citizen has over 170 million US dollars and hundreds of employees, Chronicles of Elyria is operating on a smaller scale.

There is no lack of passion: We reported in early 2017 about the impressive story behind CoE.

Jeremy Walsh, known as Caspian, the game’s leader, sold land for his planned dream house to get Chronicles of Elyria off the ground. Through Kickstarter and crowdfunding, approximately 3.4 million US dollars have been raised to date. That’s a lot, but not enough to accomplish what they aim for.

Who is going to pay for this?

Apparently, Chronicles of Elyria has been trying to find a publisher or investor in recent months. However, they hesitate to invest in a sandbox game or want concessions that cannot be made in Chronicles of Elyria: keywords being loot boxes and microtransactions.

The debate significantly dampened the mood at Elyria in December 2017. In a live chat exclusively for backers, the leader expressed his frustration about the search for a publisher. This was supposed to stay internal. However, it then went into the forum and to the public.

The debate then raised doubts about whether Chronicles of Elyria can be the game that is expected if apparently the funds are lacking.

The leader then intervened and stated: “Guys, this is harmful to our business. We are a crowdfunded game, we need to make a good impression and not scare anyone away.”