There have been a lot of crowdfunded MMOs throughout the years and keeping track of them all can be somewhat daunting. That’s why from time to time we like to check in with those games and see how they’re doing. This is a look at 11 crowdfunded MMOs and where they are now.
Ashes of Creation
Crowdfunded: May 2017
In 2018 Ashes of Creation became two different projects. There’s the main MMORPG, but they also now have a Battle Royale game which is currently the focus of beta testing. Last year they also announced that My.com would be publishing Ashes of Creation in Europe. This move was met with a lot of concern from fans. There was also a bit of controversy on the Ashes of Creation subreddit, where the CEO amongs other developers took control of the subreddit. This resulted in the concern that censorship would be a major problem for the group. Even after they got a new community manager the CEO continued to be a mod, which was, of course, an unpopular move.
Camelot Unchained
Crowdfunded: April 2013
After 6 years you would be forgiven if you had forgotten Camelot Unchained. For diehard fans, the developers give weekly updates on how development is going. They cover topics ranging from rubble animation to moss covered ground assets. It wasn’t until mid-2018 that the game finally hit the Beta 1 phase and while they are currently saying it will launch in 2019, previous delays make that seem unlikely.
Chronicles of Elyria
Crowdfunded: May 2016
File Chronicles of Elyria under “the campaign was HOW long ago?!” We can’t believe that we’re already approaching 3 years since we first started talking about Chronicles of Elyria and its idea of your character aging as you play. All in all, the game seems to have lost sight of where and what it is though. Their end of the year blog post was more community focused than anything else. They talked about various community events that they have going on and really didn’t talk about the game that much at all. Right now it just doesn’t look great for the game.
City of Titans
City of Titans
Crowdfunded: October 2013
Late in December 2018, City of Titans announced that it would be pushing Issue 0 launch into 2019. At that point with just a little over a week left in the year, that seemed pretty obvious though. Throughout 2018 they updated fans about the game, including the announcement that they would not use lockboxes in their business model. It seems that the indie development team had a bit of a rough year, which has resulted in them being behind but wanting to remind people that they are still around.
Crowfall
Crowdfunded: February 2015
Development on Crowfall is still trucking along. They launched patch 5.8 in mid-December. Earlier in the year they also reached the 50,000 backer milestone, but there isn’t a whole lot more to say about the game right now. The developers are still working hard and official campaign testing has begun.
Dual Universe
Crowdfunded: September 2016
Right at the end of 2018 Dual Universe moved into alpha testing. They also released a roadmap that gives them a launch date in the second half of 2020. They’re anticipating moving into alpha 2 sometime in the first half of 2019. That will be followed by alpha 3 which will contain PvP. Then in the first half of 2020, they’ll have a much larger beta before they launch, and funds have been secured that allowed them to hire more developers. So it’s all good new for Dual Universe fans!
Ever, Jane
Crowdfunded: October 2013
We’ll admit, things aren’t looking great for Ever, Jane. The development team doesn’t make updates on their official site much and the forums are looking a bit abandoned. The game went into closed beta in 2015, in 2016 it went into open beta, and that is where it has been ever since. In early 2018 they gave the website and forums an overhaul but it was a really quiet year for the game. The only real newsworthy story was the introduction of a personal butler.
Novus AEterno, aka Hades 9
Crowdfunded: December 2013
Unfortunately, Novus AEterno, which then became Hades 9, seems to have been abandoned. There haven’t been any updates on the game since the middle of 2018. This usually only means one of two things.
- They got a new publisher and are going to wow us with a big surprise reveal in the future.
- The developers have moved on.
Sadly, most of the time the second is the case. After they lost their funding for Novus AEterno the development team decided to make some changes and create Hades 9 instead. That game never really went anywhere though. So, even though we’ve been following Novus AEterno since it was one kid’s dream being presented at Gamescom we’re going to officially call this game dead.
Pathfinder Online
Crowdfunded: November 2012
Life has never been certain for Pathfinder Online. It has already crashed and burned once but then, much to everyone’s surprise, it came back. While the development of the game is still slowly trucking along its legs seem to be pretty unsteady under it. Those of us at MMOGames would certainly say that Pathfinder Online’s future is…uncertain at best.
Star Citizen
Crowdfunded: Constantly since October 2012
At this point, most of what people are talking about around Star Citizen is the money. So far it has raised more than $200 million from fans. With that being said, we did see a lot of development in 2018 on the game. The game is currently in alpha 3.4 and just like other games, they make regular updates. Throughout 2019 their road plan has them getting up to alpha 3.6
Temtem
Crowdfunded: May 2018
We wanted to end this article on a high note. Temtem launched its backer alpha at the end of November 2018. That may just be the best example of sticking to the timeline of any crowdfunded MMO. Things are looking very bright for Temtem right now, especially as Pokemon as a brand is enjoying more popularity than it has in a long time. That’s sure to spill over to the adorable Temtem.
