Last December we told you about Dawntide's impending beta server closure and temporary hiatus. Working as Intended was getting ready to go to work on a large-scale world revamp for the fantasy sandbox, and the firm said the open beta server would be down for a couple of months.
According to an update on Dawntide's official website, that hiatus is now going to last quite a bit longer because the dev team has run out of funding. "We're still working on finding new investors, but this will take time. In the meanwhile, we have officially stopped all development," the announcement says. "We hope to be able to resume it in the not too distant future, but as of right now we cannot say when that will be or whether it indeed happen at all."
[Thanks to Mersault for the tip!]
Reader Comments (26)
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:03PM LA1111 said
It seems there's only room for the big studios in the MMO industry nowadays. AAA or bust. Shame.
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:09PM SnarlingWolf said
That is why Indie/small developers should aim for releasing a game that has few features at launch but those features are very polished. Then as you start bringing in some money start doing updates that add more features.
That allows you to grow the product with the size of the playerbase instead of trying to do too much and either a)running out of funding before you are finished or b) releasing in debt and not doing as well as you hoped so now you have to close down the game in
That allows you to grow the product with the size of the playerbase instead of trying to do too much and either a)running out of funding before you are finished or b) releasing in debt and not doing as well as you hoped so now you have to close down the game in
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:10PM Saker said
Very sad. I think they just weren't able to move fast enough. At this point you have major direct sandbox competition closing in like ArcheAge. How are they going to compete against it?
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 1:48PM (Unverified) said
@Saker
why do people keep talking about AA, like it's right around the corner? you realize it's not coming to NA for like 4 years?
Reply
why do people keep talking about AA, like it's right around the corner? you realize it's not coming to NA for like 4 years?
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 4:09PM whateveryousay said
@Saker
Seriously, it's no joke. Many asian to north american conversions take years before they hit our shores. There is a definite chance that when the game launches in NA it will indeed be horribly outdated and pointless.
It's just the way of the world.
Reply
Seriously, it's no joke. Many asian to north american conversions take years before they hit our shores. There is a definite chance that when the game launches in NA it will indeed be horribly outdated and pointless.
It's just the way of the world.
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 4:35PM smartstep said
@whateveryousay
Aion took like 9 months?
Lineage II also was not very long.
TERA took over 1,5 but that's cause of major westernization.
Ok some other titles took longer, but there were frequently smaller f2p titles.
Imho it will be in west 1 at max 2 years after Korean release.
Reply
Aion took like 9 months?
Lineage II also was not very long.
TERA took over 1,5 but that's cause of major westernization.
Ok some other titles took longer, but there were frequently smaller f2p titles.
Imho it will be in west 1 at max 2 years after Korean release.
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:19PM Dunraven said
I'm sad about this; I have longed for a low fantasy dark age/pre dark age MMO for quite sometime now and one from a small indy studio so you won't have to edure the compensated shills trashing it 24/7.
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:21PM Vandal said
Working as Intended is probably the worst MMO developer name I have seen since Bluehole lol Sure it's funny but you might as well name your company Servers Down or Buggy Patch. It's just not a name that inspires confidence lol.
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 1:06PM Irem said
@Vandal
Bluehole is actually a pretty cool name if you know what it's referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_hole
Reply
Bluehole is actually a pretty cool name if you know what it's referring to: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_hole
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:34PM Space Cobra said
Is Kickstarter not viable for this, at least in short-term spurts?
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 1:14PM SnarlingWolf said
@Space Cobra
They are obviously managed quite poorly. They hit beta but then decided to do a whole world revamp/redisgn? At that same point they must have been clear about how much money they had left to try to do such a thing. That screams utter mismanagement and cluelessness.
Either you hit beta and forge ahead or you realize initial designs weren't good long before you get to beta. You don't get to beta and go "Hey we should redesign this entire thing, it only took how long and how much money to get this far in the first place?"
Being an indie studio and having got to the beta stage, they should have done an early adopter/paid beta to bring it the rest of the way to launch.
Reply
They are obviously managed quite poorly. They hit beta but then decided to do a whole world revamp/redisgn? At that same point they must have been clear about how much money they had left to try to do such a thing. That screams utter mismanagement and cluelessness.
Either you hit beta and forge ahead or you realize initial designs weren't good long before you get to beta. You don't get to beta and go "Hey we should redesign this entire thing, it only took how long and how much money to get this far in the first place?"
Being an indie studio and having got to the beta stage, they should have done an early adopter/paid beta to bring it the rest of the way to launch.
Posted: Mar 3rd 2012 1:05AM Space Cobra said
@SnarlingWolf
Yeah, in hindsight, point well taken. They probably wanted to promote insterest and investors, but shoulda did some more Alpha testing and polish of concepts.
Of course, we are speculating and may be wrong, but afaik, this seems to be likely. Really, if you need to go "back to the drawing board" best to do so and bring the asset down for a total remake or retooling; It's hard to fix a leaky faucet with water still flowing through it (analogy).
Reply
Yeah, in hindsight, point well taken. They probably wanted to promote insterest and investors, but shoulda did some more Alpha testing and polish of concepts.
Of course, we are speculating and may be wrong, but afaik, this seems to be likely. Really, if you need to go "back to the drawing board" best to do so and bring the asset down for a total remake or retooling; It's hard to fix a leaky faucet with water still flowing through it (analogy).
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:38PM Fabius Bile said
indie studios try sandbox games but run out of funds/are forced to release early
they all fail
large studios with enough budget to make good MMOs make wow clone after wow clone
they all fail
this industry is dead like the parrot. I welcome our new console overlords
they all fail
large studios with enough budget to make good MMOs make wow clone after wow clone
they all fail
this industry is dead like the parrot. I welcome our new console overlords
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 12:56PM TryHardSasquatch said
@Fabius Bile
You say this while we're in the year where this is all suposed to start changing with GW2 and TSW. Consoles will never be dominate over the PC. The only reason numbers are so high for consoles nowadays is because of CoD and stuff outside of videogames like zumba fitness on a wii.
Any gamer worth crediting are pretty hard to find on a console that doesnt have like 75% of his games on his PC.
Reply
You say this while we're in the year where this is all suposed to start changing with GW2 and TSW. Consoles will never be dominate over the PC. The only reason numbers are so high for consoles nowadays is because of CoD and stuff outside of videogames like zumba fitness on a wii.
Any gamer worth crediting are pretty hard to find on a console that doesnt have like 75% of his games on his PC.
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 1:15PM Rhodanum said
@fatedruby
"That really depends. JRPGs and Fighters, for example, are pretty much non-existant on PCs."
This. I'd pay *out the wazoo* for JRPGs on PC, since I'm sick of just sitting here and grinding my teeth (I pretty much refuse to buy consoles due to the online services/online stores of PS3 and Xbox still not being available around here).
Reply
"That really depends. JRPGs and Fighters, for example, are pretty much non-existant on PCs."
This. I'd pay *out the wazoo* for JRPGs on PC, since I'm sick of just sitting here and grinding my teeth (I pretty much refuse to buy consoles due to the online services/online stores of PS3 and Xbox still not being available around here).
Posted: Mar 2nd 2012 1:21PM TryHardSasquatch said
@fatedruby
Oh don't get me wrong I love those games. I was all giddy when i picked up both FFXIII-2 and SC5 at the same midnight sale. I mean I love jrpgs to the point where I'm freaking out because my CE of Hyperdimension Neptuinia: MK2 hasn't come in the mail yet. Haters gonna hate.
But at the same time I've had a steam account ever since it came out and that's where all my FPS games are, RTS games, puzzle games, indie games, etc. And then there's MMOs and such.
I will admit though that over the past year my console game colection skyrocketed in numbers with all the titles that came out.
Reply
Oh don't get me wrong I love those games. I was all giddy when i picked up both FFXIII-2 and SC5 at the same midnight sale. I mean I love jrpgs to the point where I'm freaking out because my CE of Hyperdimension Neptuinia: MK2 hasn't come in the mail yet. Haters gonna hate.
But at the same time I've had a steam account ever since it came out and that's where all my FPS games are, RTS games, puzzle games, indie games, etc. And then there's MMOs and such.
I will admit though that over the past year my console game colection skyrocketed in numbers with all the titles that came out.
Featured Stories
The Summoner's Guidebook: Why you shouldn't always buy Deathcap on LoL casters
Posted on May 23rd 2013 9:00PM






