In a livestream from shooter pro Summit1g, Steven Sharif, the head of Ashes of Creation, spontaneously talked about the MMORPG. He reveals some details about his game and also shared a dig towards New World.
What was the conversation about? The Twitch streamer Jaryd “Summit1g” Lazar is primarily known for shooters. However, over the weekend, he watched the latest video on Ashes of Creation from YouTuber TheLazyPeon live on stream.
During the stream, the head of the upcoming MMORPG chimed in in the chat and was invited to a live conversation. The discussion revolved around the idea behind Ashes of Creation, its features, and the development progress.
During the conversation, a jibe was aimed at New World, the upcoming MMO from Amazon.
“Don’t delay the release by 1 or 2 years just 3 months before the beta starts”
What was the jab about? Steven Sharif also talked about the influence of players in the development of a new title during the livestream. In his view, feedback should be taken into consideration to develop a successful game. However, an early presentation also carries the risk that players become disappointed with the state of development.
In this context, the founder of Ashes of Creation couldn’t refrain from taking a jab at New World, which was captured in a clip. In it, Sharif says:
Not all games show an early development state like we do, because it’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, you have the advantage that players and the community get a chance to see content, provide feedback, and share their opinions.
This is great for us developers to make sure we steer our ship in the right direction. And that we ensure we don’t have to delay the release by 1 or 2 years just 3 months before the start of the Open Beta because there are systems that the community doesn’t like.
On the other hand, one must understand that it’s an active development process and the development of games is often not pretty.
Steven Sharif during Summit1g’s livestream
With the shifting of the release timeframe, Sharif is obviously referring to New World. Recently, it was announced that the start of the beta and release will be delayed until 2021.
Is Sharif’s statement disrespectful? The Twitch clip was also shared on reddit regarding New World. The statement received mixed reactions:
- Some users agree with him. Due to the closed alpha, there were many rumors about New World and its development status. Consequently, there was much skepticism and uncertainty.
- Other users, however, do not take the statement seriously because there was also a delay for Ashes of Creation. Originally, it was stated that the MMORPG would definitely be released before 2020.
Sharif has since spoken in the reddit thread himself, saying this was not supposed to be a reference to New World, that he is a fan of the game, and that he respects the delay:
Hello friends. I want to clarify that this was not a jab at New World. I am actually a fan of what AGS wants to achieve, and I want them to be successful.
I also have enormous respect for my developer colleagues. My statements here were both a plea for a more transparent development process, as well as a moderation of players’ expectations regarding how schedules can change, and the pressure should be aimed at producing a quality product rather than rushing to market. ❤️
Steven Sharif on reddit
Ashes of Creation is in a special situation
What is so special about Ashes of Creation? In the livestream, Sharif shared the idea behind the new MMORPG and how it came to be. He himself is a millionaire and has retired at 29.
Together with some veterans from other MMOs, he founded the studio to develop a sandbox MMORPG that should be better than anything previously on the market.
Back then, Sharif had also tried ArcheAge among others and was dissatisfied with several aspects of the game. Therefore, he wanted to create his own MMORPG and initially financed it himself.
How is the development of the game progressing? After some negative discussions around the standalone Apocalypse, Ashes of Creation has finally picked up speed in recent months.
In March, the first alpha gameplay was shown, which was already well advanced and surprised many viewers. The graphics and gameplay looked good even though the game was still in pre-alpha.
Since then, new blog posts have been published, and even the first details about the alpha launch have been revealed. This is set to remain online permanently from autumn and will take place without NDA.
