The sudden end of Ashes of Creation has destroyed many MMO dreams and caught long-time supporters off guard. Also affected was the YouTube channel Phoenix Messenger, which likely wouldn’t exist today without the MMORPG from Intrepid.
Who is the Phoenix Messenger? The German YouTube channel has been around for more than 4 years and for a long time, the videos from the Phoenix Messenger were solely focused on one topic: Ashes of Creation! Behind the videos is Amar, an MMO-enthusiastic family man, who is actively supported by his wife Lynn in voicing the texts and creating the cover images.
I became aware of the channel sometime last year while searching for German content about Ashes of Creation on YouTube. I immediately liked the mix of palpable enthusiasm for the project, but also the necessary distance to clearly address areas of improvement and problem fields.
The duo is not out for the next scandal or blindly catering to hype. Instead, they report calmly and collectedly about the status quo, providing context and establishing realistic expectations. This is also reflected in the community, which discusses constructively under the videos and on the channel’s Discord.
However, with the sudden implosion at Intrepid and the end of Ashes of Creation, the channel had to endure a drastic setback this year. For the Grindfest 2026, I spoke with Amar about this difficult phase. We also shed light on other MMO hopefuls as well as the future plans of the Phoenix Messenger.
During this week, you can expect exciting articles every day around the topic of MMORPGs. Included: nostalgic retrospectives, exciting analyses from renowned industry veterans, previews of upcoming online role-playing games, and entertaining streams.
Here’s the program for the big MMORPG theme week 2026 from MeinMMO
When the Steam trailer for Ashes of Creation went live, there was still hope that this could work out:
The beginnings of the Phoenix Messenger
How did it all start with the Phoenix Messenger? Amar tells me that he had been following Ashes of Creation since the Kickstarter campaign in 2017. In the following years, he delved deeper into the topic and realized: Especially in the German-speaking region, there were really very few people creating content about this promising MMORPG.
He himself had opinions he wanted to express, as well as insights and information he wanted to share. Moreover, his friends repeatedly questioned him about Ashes of Creation. So why not use YouTube for that …!?
The project wasn’t planned like that: “Hey, I feel like doing YouTube or becoming a content creator now.” I was just excited about the game and had friends who asked me tons of questions because they knew: Amar knows about Ashes, so you should ask him. And before I repeat the answers for the umpteenth time, I thought: I’ll make a video about it. And that’s how it started.
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
Back then as today, Amar and his wife manage the channel as a hobby project alongside work and family. Amar mainly focuses on research, scripting, and editing. That his better half has been voicing the videos for about 3 years now is actually due to colleagues from GameStar.
In January 23, I asked my wife: “Don’t you feel like voicing a video? I think you can do it better in terms of flow and clarity.” And to be honest: I based it a bit on GameStar. Because I always thought that when a woman presents gaming news to me, I prefer to listen to it [Sorry, guys!, editor’s note].
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
The experiment worked out. She does a great job and creates an environment with her calm, factual manner even on difficult topics like the end of Ashes of Creation, allowing upset viewers to take a breather and cool their heated emotions.
Amar adds that he would never have been able to realize the Phoenix Messenger in this way without his wife’s support over the years. On average, a video takes up a solid 6 to 8 hours of the little free time he has. 245 videos have been released on YouTube so far. For a long time, a new video went live on the channel every week. In addition, there have been and still are regular streaming nights on Twitch.
So thousands of hours have already flowed into the hobby project. The two MMO fans have remained committed over all the years for several reasons:
- their own fascination for Ashes of Creation, which addresses only a niche as an MMORPG and which therefore should be regularly catered to with new videos
- the community they got to know through Ashes and with whom they started anew after the xth progress wipe on the alpha servers
- the noticeable demand for Ashes and the increasing number of viewers and Discord visitors
It’s still very surreal to me that someone sits in front of the screen and looks forward to us presenting our new video.
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
What did Ashes have that others didn’t? For Amar, Steven Sharif was especially an important factor, who, with his promises and background (millionaire, MMORPG fan), acted like a kind of unicorn in the gaming and MMO industry. He’s the one guy who does exactly what we all want to do: Have enough money to develop the MMO of our dreams.
Amar would have acquired the Warhammer 40K license in Steven’s place, but even so, Ashes of Creation came very close to the YouTuber’s dream MMO – with the levelable nodes, the kingdoms, and the extremely fertile ground for all kinds of guild conflicts.
What we had with the guilds already in the alpha was diplomacy on Game-of-Thrones level. Alliances were forged, there were wars, there were secret agreements, betrayal, and intrigues … and that was just an alpha.
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
In addition, there were the constant promises from Steven to fully finance the MMO and expand it into a great brand. No influence from external investors, but full focus on community involvement and transparent development? That sounded great.
While the alpha phase showed a lot of potential, there was a question that had been bothering Amar for quite some time:
How does Steven want to attract enough players to the world of Ashes of Creation, despite the rather niche PvP approach, so that the node system can unfold fully over several years on the two enormous continents?
Already, the part playable in the alpha was huge, and that was just a fraction of the originally planned scope for launch. Although Intrepid’s team eventually postponed the second continent to an update after the release, Amar believed it would still take an additional 2 years to complete just the first continent.
On the ashes of Ashes
How did the Phoenix Messenger experience the end of Ashes? Amar still vividly remembers the days when Intrepid collapsed in on itself out of nowhere. Just before that, they had the first content creator meeting that he and other YouTubers had been working towards for a long time.
The present representatives of Ashes didn’t show any signs of the upcoming implosion, according to Amar. On the contrary, they presented very concrete content plans for the coming months. This appointment set a positive tone for the creator meeting. Everyone was excited about the future of Ashes and looked forward to it finally kicking off on this level, too.
Accordingly, the Phoenix Messenger was surprised when a video appeared shortly afterward on YouTuber Kira’s channel, in which he referred to information he couldn’t share in detail yet, but which would mean the end of the MMORPG. At first, Amar was sure: This is surely just clickbait. But the next few days would show that Kira was right …
It was the joke that we had worked so long to get into this content creator club … and as soon as we finally made it in, it was our first meeting, the project suddenly ends.
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
Amar admits that he had to digest the news of the end of Ashes at first. Not only because his own dream was shattered and the channel’s focal theme had died. He also had to endure some accusations from people who had never trusted Ashes and Steven from the beginning.
In their view, Amar’s positive reporting led other players to invest money in the project. While this is an overly simplified critique, because the videos always pointed out the currently unfinished state as well as the areas under construction of the MMORPG, it still left its mark on the YouTuber.
In this video on YouTube, the Phoenix Messenger likely looks back for the last time on Ashes of Creation:
How could it continue with Ashes of Creation? Amar believes that it is quite possible that Steven Sharif will win the ongoing court proceedings and regain the rights to Ashes of Creation or that there could be a resolution behind the scenes at some point.
However, due to the revelation of the board and the received investments, so much trust has been burnt that Sharif will likely never find anyone willing to spend money on his game or financially support him even if he wins.
If the board wins and retains the rights, Amar expects that they will quickly look for a seller. What will happen to Ashes is also unclear. However, it is likely to have only limited connection to the original vision.
Also on the YouTube channel of MeinMMO, everything revolves around the best genre in the world. Recently, for example, a video was released about the 5 best console MMOs:
The future of the Phoenix Messenger
After the end of Ashes of Creation, the Phoenix Messenger had to realign. Amar admits that he has lost faith in crowdfunding projects through this experience. However, he can understand that players continue to invest money in their potential wish MMO.
The MMO genre is essentially funded only by hope and dreams. Anyone who is an MMO fan at heart – even if you hear a thousand or ten thousand times: Don’t spend money on something that’s not ready and probably never will be – has this hope within them that someday this one game will finally come out.
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
By the way, Amar still doesn’t regret investing a lot of money in Ashes of Creation. If he regrets anything, it’s rather the fact that he didn’t buy the largest package back then.
This way, he would have gained access to the game much earlier to incorporate these personal experiences into his videos – which would likely have advanced his channel significantly more than it is right now. On the other hand, through that investment, he met many great people and built a community that he wouldn’t want to miss today.
Ashes of Creation was the glue that held us all together because we all had a common dream and found many of the things we currently miss in other games in Ashes.
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
Due to the wonderful community and all the work and love that have gone into the channel over the years, Amar and Lynn decided to continue the Phoenix Messenger – albeit with a reduced release schedule of two weeks for new videos.
Whether a video about Ashes of Creation will appear on the channel again is currently unclear – this depends on the outcome of the various court proceedings. Instead, there have been videos in recent months about Warhammer Online: Return of Reckoning, Scars of Honor, and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Amar explains this wild mix to us:
We are looking for games that are not so publicly represented. It was similar with Ashes back then. […] And that’s how I ended up with Star Wars for example. I enjoyed it 14 years ago, then completely forgot about it and a few weeks ago I thought: This still exists …
Amar from the Phoenix Messenger in conversation with MeinMMO
Similar to Ashes of Creation, Amar also sees a lot of potential in Scars of Honor, albeit with more question marks. The first videos received a good reception, more followed and then the … unfortunately disappointing playtest. Similar to many other genre fans, Amar believes that the game will take a long time to reach a decent beta status. Now he is waiting, like us, for the next playtests.
You can find the latest video from the Phoenix Messenger on YouTube and below:
Amar now has high hopes for Guild Wars 3. He likes that the series is reinventing itself again to keep all three games relevant. His guess: The new direction will define itself mainly through the more action-packed combat system, with less selection of skills but more customization options. He also hopes for a comeback of the guild wars from part 1.
What Amar doesn’t like, however, is the new direction of ArcheAge Chronicles. With the PvP/sandbox focus of the first part, the MMO fan had a great time. The sequel probably won’t be able to offer that kind of experience with its focus on PvE and story.
Instead, the YouTuber has more hopes for Chrono Odyssey, which has shown many construction sites in beta but also potential and New-World vibes. There will certainly be one or the other video about these games on the Phoenix Messenger as soon as the time is ripe for it.
We definitely keep our fingers crossed for Amar and Lynn for the new direction of the channel, thank the duo for the exciting insights, and look forward to the next videos. Feel free to check out the two MMO enthusiasts on YouTube or Twitch! How our Grindfest theme week continues this week, you can find out here: The Grindfest 2026 has started! Here you can find the program for the big MMORPG theme week from MeinMMO
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