Catastrophic reviews, a mountain of criticism, and even allegations of fraud: With Wild West Online, the development studio WWO Partners Limited has not done itself any favors. But what exactly is going on?
What is being criticized? Players complain primarily about the state of the Western MMO. It is considered unfinished, struggles with many bugs, and promised features are missing – for example, bounty hunting. Players feel tricked because Wild West Online now plays no differently in its release version than it did in alpha – and the alpha was already plagued by serious problems.
How are the reviews on Steam? On Steam, customers vent their frustration. The reviews are “mostly negative”. The few positive voices are drowned out by the criticism. Player numbers on Steam are also disappointing. On average, only 305 players are online simultaneously on Steam. Not good numbers for a freshly released online game.
Is Wild West Online a scam?
Why are there allegations of fraud? On one hand, because promised and mentioned features in the description are not present in the game. Housing and the ability to own and defend land are missing. The game is geared towards the role of cowboy, even though it was announced that one could also be a farmer. There are no bounty hunts, the RPG aspect is lacking, and the focus is on PvP. On the other hand, Sergey Titov is linked to the game, which raises alarm bells for some.
- Player Bench writes on Steam: “The War Z – Wild West Edition. This game is an absolute disgrace! It only takes your money with misleading advertising. Just stay away! If you want to inform yourselves, just Google ‘Sergey Titov Wild West Online’!”
- Hai_Happen says: “Before you spend money on this game, let’s pool together for a detective and a bounty hunter to take down that damn sackgay Tittdoof. As far as I’m concerned, he should go to jail for fraud. Yes, I know it’s not confirmed, but the evidence is mounting that he has his fingers in the pie. Anyone who was there for The War Z will recognize the parallels.”
Who is Sergey Titov? Sergey Titov was the producer of the heavily criticized and failed online game The War Z. The War Z also failed to deliver many of the promises made for the online shooter. For example, the maps were not 400 km² large, there were no skills, and no private servers, even though all this was described. There were also dubious microtransactions that made players feel like just their money was being taken from them. Aggressive moderation in the forums and photoshopped screenshots made the situation even worse. Ultimately, The War Z was removed from Steam.
What does Sergey Titov have to do with Wild West Online? A real connection to Sergey Titov cannot be proven; however, the developers have admitted to using an engine for Wild West Online that comes from one of Sergey Titov’s companies. Furthermore, the same company handles PR for WWO, which also managed PR for The War Z. And the URLs of the games The War Z, Shattered Skies (which Titov was also involved in), and WWO are similar.
Whether Sergey Titov really has something to do with Wild West Online cannot be confirmed. The corporate structure, which also includes the developers of WWO, is so opaque that players just become suspicious. This situation, combined with the promised features that are not included, creates the feeling of experiencing the debacle of The War Z again.
