Fractured Online had a somewhat successful beta phase and launched on September 15, 2022, on Steam in early access. Now the MMORPG on Steam has only 23 players in the 24-hour peak, but what actually happened?
What is Fractured Online? In advance, the game was presented as the first truly dynamic sandbox MMORPG and brought along some really good ideas. Your playstyle is fundamentally determined by the race you choose to play.
While the Wildfolk as a player race can only act in PvE and live peacefully, as a Demon there is hardcore full-loot open-world PvP and even experience for killing other players. As a Human, you choose the middle path where PvP is possible but punished.
Each of the three races has its own planet, and traveling between them is possible. However, visitors must adapt to the rules that prevail there. Other core features sound equally interesting:
- You learn skills by killing monsters that master them
- Mandatory crafting, as no finished equipment is dropped by monsters
- Player-driven economy, where the community must build and defend an entire city
- Traveling between worlds and event asteroids
- World bosses as PvE endgame content
- ISO view with a real open world and no separated sections
- Survival elements like hunger and cold
Where does Fractured currently stand? The sandbox MMORPG has been in early access on Steam since September 15 and is expected to remain there until the first half of 2023. Currently, you can secure access from €25.99 and start playing.
However, the game is not yet feature-complete. Among other things, the Demon race is still missing in early access and is to be added only with the final release.
What sounds great on paper, however, does not seem to convince much. On Steam, the MMO currently has only 42% positive reviews out of a total of 380 reviews, and player numbers look dire.
In the last 24 hours, a maximum of 23 players have played Fractured simultaneously on Steam (as of November 7, 4:00 PM, via steamdb). That’s only about 1.5% of the 1,515 players at launch.
The game is also losing media attention. While at its peak, 4,045 viewers watched on Twitch how Fractured Online was being played, there were only a maximum of 6 concurrent viewers in November (as of November 7, 4:00 PM, via twitchtracker).
It should be noted that Fractured Online also has its own launcher with Glyph, and those numbers are not publicly available; however, Steam numbers and Twitch viewers are often a good trend indicator. A voluntary community employee from the developers confirmed, however, that “significantly more” fans log in via Glyph (via reddit).
You can watch the launch trailer for Fractured here:
What is happening with Fractured Online?
Why are players leaving? The early access launch of Fractured went less well on Steam than hoped. Many fans had issues connecting to the server, and even purchasing on Steam sometimes did not go smoothly.
If you could log in, there were numerous game bugs and crashes waiting, especially at the beginning. While this is to be expected with an early access, many people in the community were bothered by it.
The developers provided patches almost daily to smooth out some errors, but some felt that was not fast enough. Thus, many fans left just days after the early access launch, leaving unfavorable reviews.
Many fans praise the actual idea and concepts of the MMORPG, but for some, the game is simply too unfinished even for an early access. This image is clearly reflected in the reviews on Steam (via Steam).
While the developers are diligently improving and bringing updates, this is only slowly changing the ratings. But at least: At launch, Fractured only had 38% positive reviews; the ratings over the last 14 days are already at 56%.
Fans want to come back later: On reddit, the sentiment is similar, even if people here are generally more positive towards the MMORPG than on Steam itself. There, PvP fans are particularly active in the forums, who find that Fractured currently offers too little.
Especially on reddit, there are numerous comments saying that they are waiting for the full release and the Demon race to be able to play proper PvP. Additionally, some fans hope that the entire game will run smoother and more polished by launch.
However, very few people seem to have completely written off Fractured Online. The ideas of the MMORPG are often praised here as well and described as innovative (via reddit).
What do you think of Fractured Online? Have you checked out the MMORPG? Is it for you, and are you also just waiting for new content and a smoother experience? Or do you think that Fractured cannot be saved anymore even at launch? Feel free to let us know in the comments here on MeinMMO.
