Marc Jacobs is one of the largest Western MMORPG designers ever. He was behind the success of Dark Age of Camelot and was responsible for Warhammer Online. After some tough years with his new game “Camelot Unchained” he claims he has hit another homerun, he cheers. And this is despite being constantly told he needed to focus on crypto projects and Web3.
Who is Marc Jacobs?
- Marc Jacobs is an entrepreneur and old-school game designer. He founded the studio Mythic Entertainment in 1995 and developed the legendary online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot: To this day, it is considered one of the best PvP MMORPGs of all time.
- Mythic was acquired by EA in 2006, and Jacobs developed the MMORPG “Warhammer Online” for the software giant, which incorporated many ideas from DAOC but ultimately fell short of expectations, never able to reach its full potential and was discontinued in 2013.
- Disappointed by the big corporations Jacobs became independent in 2011 and founded the studio “City State Entertainment”, where he works on the crowdfunding game “Camelot Unchained”, a spiritual successor to Dark Age of Camelot. However, for years, the project was under a dark cloud: it lacked funding, success, and personnel.
MMORPG developer celebrates new deal as a homerun
This is what Jacobs says now: In a blog post, Jacobs compares the situation he was in recently with that of Dark Age of Camelot many years ago:
- Every publisher would have rejected DAOC back then. The project seemed to be at its end and on the brink of failure, but Jacobs managed to secure a deal at the last moment that “not only saved the company but allowed them to develop the best RVR-centered MMORPG of all time”.
- This time it wasn’t quite as gloomy, but he again hit a “homerun for the studio”.
What does he mean by that? Jacobs succeeded in finding 15 million dollars in fresh money for the development of Camelot Unchained in an investors’ round. He apparently sees this as a homerun.
What will happen next? Jacobs says the deal allows the studio to:
- Remain independent
- Grow at a speed never seen before
- Hire wildly new people, such as an extremely experienced design chief
Jacobs says he had to say no to crypto and Web3 a thousand times
Jacobs himself is particularly proud that he said “No, no, a thousand times no” to crypto-based deals in his search for new investors and has constantly resisted jumping on the “Web3” model.
Despite his refusal, a deal eventually materialized.
Now he will return to what he does best: designing an MMORPG.
Camelot Unchained has been in very troubled waters for years. The slow development and the decision to spin off and publish a game frustrated fans and made them lose faith in the project. It remains to be seen whether the fresh money really brings the turnaround that Jacobs promises:
