The promising MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria is no longer coming out. Fans are so disappointed about the cancellation that they seem to be losing trust in crowdfunding.
What happened to Chronicles of Elyria? The developers announced shortly after the start of the pre-alpha that they no longer had money for the further development of the MMORPG. Therefore, the game will not be released. The entire team was laid off. It is unclear whether the MMORPG might be released in another form someday. Some developers want to continue working on the existing alpha content of the MMORPG in their free time. What will come of that is still uncertain.
Fans are disappointed
How is the community reacting? There is outrage and disappointment. Especially those who spent a lot of money supporting the development of Chronicles of Elyria are partly outraged. For example, anyone who wanted to become a king had to pay $10,000. All that money is now gone.
In total, the developers were able to raise almost $8 million through crowdfunding. The Kickstarter campaign alone brought in nearly $1.4 million in 2016. The rest came from sales through pledge packages and another crowdfunding event.
But the money was not enough to create an MMORPG that matched the vision of Chronicles of Elyria. However, this vision also did not attract the interest of publishers. As the developers explained earlier, no publisher could be found who wanted to support the project.
What do the fans say? There is much discussion about the cancellation of the MMORPG.
- TheGladex writes on Reddit: “They clearly mismanaged our money, went over budget, and now they’re running away!”
- Bishopnd3 asks a provocative question on Reddit: “I’m curious. To everyone who supported the game: Why are you participating in a Kickstarter for an MMO?”
- Ephemeralis is really angry and says on Reddit: “Summarizing the failure of his company in such a bullshit post was an insult.”
- UranusProber writes on Reddit: “Imagine you spend money on a Kickstarter MMO…”
Overall, the comments reveal that trust in the crowdfunding of MMORPGs has been shaken.
With crowdfunding, one must be cautious
MeinMMO author Andreas says: With crowdfunding, one must be clear from the beginning that something like this can happen. There is no guarantee that the game will actually be released. Especially with MMORPGs that are supposed to come from small indie studios, one must be cautious. Developing an MMORPG costs a lot of money. Therefore, always ask yourself whether a small studio can actually handle this.
The cancellation of the MMORPG Chronicles of Elyria could really negatively affect the crowdfunding of future online role-playing games. Players will certainly be much more careful with their money now.
Will you be cautious in supporting crowdfunding projects after the situation surrounding Chronicles of Elyria?
- Mein-MMOs author Alexander Leitsch suspects that at least 6 more MMOs might fail this year.
- You can still look forward to these MMORPGs that are set to be released in 2020 after the cancellation of Chronicles of Elyria.
