The solo developer of the solo MMORPG Erenshor on Steam addresses issues with player retention. He also discusses a major player wish and presents a roadmap until 2027.
What problems is Erenshor facing? As solo developer Brian Burgee shares in a post on Reddit, around 12% of players drop out before even speaking to the first NPC, which according to him only takes about 30 seconds in the game. A few more would drop out before they even reach level 5, which he estimates takes about 2-3 hours.
His game is doing well on Steam with 94% positive reviews and has been solely maintained by him in Early Access since April 2025.
So, he wondered what might cause some players to give up so early and lose interest. Together with the community, he has worked out several points to create a roadmap until 2027. This will focus not only on new content but also on making the onboarding process for new, interested players more enjoyable to counteract the dropout rate.
However, one major player wish will remain unfulfilled, even though the developer knows it is one of the reasons for the dropouts.
Roadmap, but without generative AI
Which player wish will not be fulfilled? Many players reportedly drop the game early according to feedback because they cannot have conversations with NPCs, thus missing a major social aspect of “real MMORPGs.” He has absolute understanding for this and wishes the reality were different, but he cannot reconcile using generative AI for his game at this time:
In an ideal world with ethical, high-quality, cost-effective, and reliable AI, it would be fantastic if the sim players could use this to interact with the player. Unfortunately, that is not the reality at the moment.
[…]
So Erenshor will remain for the time being a handwritten game where the sim players are not the main characters but the supporting figures that create the illusion and gameplay loop of an MMO.
Brian Burgee via Reddit
Nevertheless, the roadmap includes many other points that players have communicated in feedback and that he will address promptly.
What does the roadmap show? The roadmap outlines the goals and contents of 4 major updates leading to the 1.0 release, which is scheduled to take place in Q2 2027. Thus, the following updates are planned:
- Version 0.7 – July 2026 (already released)
- Raids
- Version 0.8 – approx. Q4 2026
- Quality of Life & UI improvements
- New class
- New dungeon
- Version 0.9 – approx. Q1 2027
- Epic weapon quests for all classes
- New story
- Version 1.0 – Q2 2027
- Final raid & conclusion of the main story
- New class
This means that a completion of Erenshor with 1.0 between April and June 2027 is likely. However, the developer reserves the right to adjust the roadmap again if feedback changes or things do not proceed as planned.
The last update to version 0.7 finally brought raids to the solo MMORPG. Here you are the raid leader and do not have to deal with your fellow fighters in voice chat. It depends solely on you whether the raid fails or you emerge gloriously: The perfect MMORPG for solo players now lets you raid alone, so you don’t have to yell at anyone
Your opinion is important to us!
Do you like the article? Then let us know!