Ultima creator Richard “Lord British” Garriott has responded to all the negative criticism that is once again directed at his new MMORPG Shroud of the Avatar (SotA) – and he is quite defiant.
Shroud of the Avatar is not a flop!
SotA has several thousand players! Steamcharts is the only way to see how many players SotA has approximately and where the trend is moving. However, these are not reliable numbers, as the MMORPG also has its own launcher, which many players use. According to the latest official statement from the development team, about 35 percent of all SotA fans play via Steam. Steamcharts shows that on average about 180 players are online at the same time. If you calculate this from the 35 percent, a little more than 500 players play the MMO at the same time.
In an interview with Eurogamer, designer Richard Garriott explains that there are several thousand active players. This is quite possible, as Steamcharts only shows the players who are playing at the same time. However, the total number of active players is likely to be in the low thousands. Garriott also suggests that he would be satisfied with several tens of thousands of active players. However, this number has not yet been reached by the MMO. Earlier, producer Starr Long stated that SotA needs about 50,000 active players to be profitable.
The marketing campaign brought nothing. Garriott says that a costly marketing campaign was planned for the launch. But he could hardly see any advertising for the game. Therefore, he and his team analyzed what had happened. Now a new marketing campaign is set to launch. With this, the creator of the Ultima series hopes to reach the millions of Ultima fans who, in his opinion, are still completely unaware of Shroud of the Avatar. He believes that the number of players can drastically increase.
The MMORPG will run forever!
SotA will run forever! When asked how long the game can survive if the new advertising campaign is not successful, he defiantly said: “Forever!” He is confident that his team can implement each of the five planned episodes of the MMORPG. He wants to achieve this goal “at all costs.” Garriott does not see SotA as a flop. He will continue to work on it and believes that the game will certainly keep him busy for the next one to two years.
Reactions are worth their weight in gold. Both in the article by Eurogamer, as well as on MassivelyOP and on Reddit, there are many reactions to these statements by Richard Garriott. Those who want to be amused can read the comments there. Many do not believe that SotA stands a chance after such a poor launch, still being in a bad state and that around half of the team had to be laid off for financial reasons.
