The upcoming MMORPG Crowfall is once again facing problems. More precisely, a single issue is holding everything up. Things looked good for the beta release recently. Even the boss is annoyed.
What is the current situation? Crowfall was actually supposed to start beta around February, so that interested fans can finally play for themselves. So far, the game is still in alpha.
However, everything is now postponed for an indefinite period. In a post in the official forum from March 18, Creative Director J. Todd Coleman writes: “Yes, I know. It’s frustrating. And it frustrates us too.”
Why the delay? The reason is a bug that keeps evading a fix. The game is “99.99%” done, but this one bug causes Crowfall to lag so badly with multiple players that it becomes unplayable. Coleman writes about this:
Any significant player count (and I have reason to believe we will reach it) causes this issue to appear and makes the game unplayable. That would be even more frustrating.
Originally, the beta was supposed to start “soon”, as stated during the introduction of the new class Frostweaver. Now Coleman cannot yet make any statement regarding the exact “when”.
According to a release plan that the developers showed shortly before, the patch should be the last in this phase. After that, all features should be implemented, and it will only be about bug fixing and polishing.
Impatience and understanding among fans
The responses mostly express their impatience. This is fueled by the fact that the official Twitter account of Crowfall posted a tweet for the backers a week after the forum post, on March 24, which Coleman also retweeted:
In the corresponding thread in the forum, players repeatedly ask for new information about when the bug will finally be fixed. No wonder, as Crowfall is one of the most promising new MMORPGs of 2020 and many want to play it.
User APE sees things a bit more objectively: “Repeating ‘It’s not ready’ at this point feels pointless. Coleman said that when it’s ready, it will be there for us. If it’s not there, it’s not ready. Saying ‘we’re close’, ‘we hope it comes Thursday afternoon’ or anything like that, does us no favors.”
APE is not surprised that the release isn’t working out, but he is by no means angry about it. He looks forward to the game but will play it when it’s available and does not get upset about previous bugs. Crowfall has postponed its releases and deadlines multiple times in the past:
