RIFT
Genre: MMORPG | Developer: Trion Worlds | Platform: PC | Release Date: March 1, 2011 | Model: Free2Play
What kind of game is this? Rift is an MMORPG from developer Trion Worlds, which was acquired by the German company Gamigo in 2018. It is heavily inspired by the gameplay of World of Warcraft while featuring its own mechanic with “Rifts” that enable massive world events.
The game initially launched with a subscription model, transitioning to free-to-play with an optional subscription on June 12, 2013. The developers recognized the potential of this market and regularly expanded the MMORPG.
In 2016, however, players accused the developers of making life difficult for free-to-play players. Since then, Rift has faded somewhat into obscurity.
How is Rift doing currently? Rift claims that it will not receive any major expansions at long intervals but will receive shorter updates more frequently. However, this hasn’t worked so far. In 2021, only reheated events were held. For 2022, a large new content update was announced that was supposed to be released in Q1.
Now it’s December and there hasn’t been any word about the update. The last real new content is years old. Nevertheless, surprisingly many players remain loyal to the MMORPG. Even on Steam, it still achieves 181 concurrent players at peak.
That’s why I believe Rift will die in 2023: The last major headline made by Rift was that the classic server failed. Although the server was booming in the beginning, many bugs and issues led to its demise.
Since then, the MMORPG has been more or less a sad spectacle. No updates, no new content, no hope. Given that the German publisher Gamigo has already given up ArcheAge to Kakao Games, it’s just a matter of time before Rift is either sold or completely shut down.
