Chronicles of Elyria (CoE) was considered a dead MMORPG in March 2020 after all employees were laid off. However, the CEO fights against the allegations and tries to complete it alone. One reason for this could be the ongoing lawsuit from the players.
What happened to the company? On March 25, the CEO of Soulbound Studios, the company behind the MMORPG, announced that all employees were laid off and the development of Chronicles of Elyria was halted.
For years, the studio tried to persuade publishers to invest money. But the MMORPG was unsuccessful in this. Instead, $1.3 million was raised through Kickstarter and a total of $8 million from players. There were crazy actions such as an “in-game Advent calendar” worth $95 before the game was even released.
Nevertheless, the company ultimately ran out of money, leading to this radical step, although the CEO of the company, Jeromy Walsh, insisted that all the money went into development.
How did the players react? Following the layoffs, the fans of Chronicles of Elyria began to sue the studio. They hope for one of the following scenarios:
- Financial compensation for the supporters
- The IP of Chronicles of Elyria becomes freely accessible to everyone
- There is a lawsuit against Jeromy Walsh
But Jeromy Walsh defended himself against the allegations.
In a new letter from the lawyer, it is stated that the players misinterpreted the original message. In fact, Chronicles of Elyria is still supposed to be released. He himself is currently working as the only employee and voluntarily on development.
The MMORPG will be released, just with a new strategy and delayed
What exactly does Walsh say? In the lawyer’s letter, which was published on a Discord server regarding the class action lawsuit, it says officially:
The announcement from Soulbound, when read in context, never contained a statement that production was permanently halted or suspended. Furthermore, as a general suggestion, changing one’s opinion or strategy is not a misinterpretation.
People and companies do this every day. This was not a
“misrepresentation” but rather a pause while the business plan was reconsidered.
The new business plan still envisions a release of the MMORPG with all promised content, such as character aging, according to the letter. However, only the CEO himself is currently working on it due to financial reasons:
While Soulbound was forced to lay off essentially all employees due to its current financial situation, the founder of Soulbound has continued working on CoE on an unpaid basis as his only job since the end of March and plans to continue working on CoE until Soulbound is able to deliver CoE with the elements promised to the funders.
In the further course of the letter, the lawyer of Soulbound also explains that developing a game from an indie studio involves a lot of time and effort. Therefore, there is no fixed timeframe in which Chronicles of Elyria will be released.
What does Xsolla say? The money for crowdfunding around Chronicles of Elyria was raised through the company Xsolla. Xsolla is a financial service provider that is also used by Twitch and other platforms.
This company has also received a letter regarding the lawsuit. However, it also refers to the further development of the game. Furthermore, they are only service providers and have no influence over the decisions of Soulbound.
Players suspect tactic to protect against the lawsuit
In the subreddit for Chronicles of Elyria and the Discord for the class action lawsuit, many players suspect it is merely a stalling tactic. By continuing development on the MMORPG, for example, the Kickstarter terms of service have not been breached. These terms state that a developer studio must fulfill its part of the agreement; otherwise, refunds are possible.
The lawsuit could also prove to be more difficult as long as the game has not been abandoned.
However, it is questionable whether a single individual, who is a trained game programmer, has all the necessary knowledge to implement an MMORPG of this size.
Yet not all crowdfunding games encounter such problematic development. In our list, we have gathered 7 major MMOs that were also funded by players and are still being developed.
