After a rather bumpy start, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (old school PvE MMORPG) is back on track thanks to a new investor. With the financial boost, Visionary Realms was able to not only hire new developers but is also currently preparing for the upcoming Alpha.
The Deep Fall of Pantheon
In early 2014, Brad McQuaid, known from Everquest and Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, founded his new studio Visionary Realms and started the development of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen. This is a fantasy MMORPG, focusing on player interaction, group play, and old school mechanics (e.g. corpse runs, death penalties, item decay).
However, the development of Pantheon has not been under a good star so far.
Actually, the MMORPG was supposed to be financed through a Kickstarter campaign, but like so many other poorly running MMORPG campaigns on crowdfunding platforms before, the developers of Pantheon could not find enough supporters for the project and failed already halfway. The subsequently launched private crowdfunding action via their own homepage also fell short of expectations.
Without the urgently needed financial boost, the money was running out as early as April 2014, which forced the studio to cut back on development work and dissolve the original development team. However, Visionary Realms did not want to give up on the project so quickly, so Brad McQuaid continued to work with a small group of volunteers on the game, hoping to finance Pantheon with the help of players and other investors.
The Rise of the Fallen
This hope seems to have been fulfilled now. According to an official statement on the newly designed homepage, Brad McQuaid announces that Visionary Realms has finally gathered the necessary startup capital for the development of Pantheon and has already taken a big step towards Alpha.
“This changes everything for us. We were now able to fill some key positions and hire new game artists and game designers as well as more programmers. This has enabled us to complete the last elements of our prototype and prepare the game for Alpha. Now is the time where the fun really begins — we have a working game and will soon start showcasing it. We can hardly wait to finally hear the opinions of the players.”
With the start of the Alpha, the studio wants to begin as early as the end of this year and if everything goes smoothly, then Pantheon could be released in 2017, or at least that is the plan.
The whole thing was made possible by a “business angel,” which refers to investors with extensive industry knowledge who not only participate financially in a company but also support it simultaneously with know-how and contacts. Some players even suspect that the anonymous benefactor might be John Smedley. He not only has the money and essential contacts but has also been a close friend of Brad McQuaid for years and recently looked for a new opportunity. However, this rumor has not been confirmed.
Mein MMO says: Like so many other big names in the genre, Braid McQuaid is a colorful personality. He is still loved by some for EverQuest (SOE), while other players are bitterly disappointed by Vanguard: Saga of Heroes (SIGIL, later bought by SOE) as the game fell far short of its potential and promises despite many good ideas. Not to mention the bugs and content gaps at the beginning. Nevertheless, it is especially the old Vanguard players who, together with the EverQuest fans, hope that Pantheon will become a successful project. They have been waiting for years in vain for a new old school PvE MMORPG, especially since EverQuest Next with its new ideas and features is taking a completely different path than many fans of the original EverQuest had wished for.
Whether Pantheon has what it takes to become the spiritual successor of EverQuest, hopefully we can judge for ourselves by the end of the year.
