A lot of our core players have decided to take a break because we know that this beta is getting extended; probably will not see a release until the first quarter of 2017. Due to that fact a lot of our core is taking a break from the beta. This has traditionally been a real stickler for us. When we play a beta, we expect to be able at some very near future see the release of the game. In both instances, we’ve been bitten and now are twice shy. Speculation has us delaying this beta for quite some time based on the post here by the CEO of Sandbox Interactive, known as Korn.
First of all, I’d like to point out that we have always been very clear about our philosophy with regards to Albion Online: the main goal is for the game to be successful in the long term. The game will be released when we believe that it’s able to achieve that goal. Every time we gave an indication for a release date, we always made that clear.
Having said that, we are certain that if we would release the game right now, it a business success. However, so are many games that still were pretty much dead 6 months later.
Currently, there is a realistic chance that due to some flaws with the core game loop – those mentioned in the OP – the game might fail to gain lasting traction, and might crash and burn similar to so many other MMORPGs released over the past 5 years. This seriously cannot be what any body wants – in particular not because it is not rocket science to fix these issues, as you can see in the OP. It’s not about re-inventing the wheel, it’s largely about balance, polish and fine tuning, and (unfortunately) some world changes.
From a players perspective, I think that most of you are looking for an MMO that they can play for an extended period of time. I am sure many players here had high hopes for games such as Wildstar, Black Desert, Arch Age or other games, hoping that finally, one game would “stick”. And yet, they did not – though of course, the reasons for this vary.
We can be very clear that, after 4 years of development and being extremely close to release, we will not jeopardize the success of the game out of impatience. As stated, there is no external business pressure forcing us to release prematurely, and again, I am convinced that even those players who now push for release would much rather see a great game, then to be looking back in a couple of months time and complaining about the game being released too early, or in an unfinished state.
We are extremely close to getting the core game absolutely right, in a nutshell, it’s about combining the best parts of beta 1 and final beta with regards to the economy, overall balance, world map and feature fine tuning.
Once that’s in place, we are ready for release and can finally start working on the long backlog of awesome expansions for the game. (arena, fishing, player run shops, putting more sand in the box, conquerable open world buildings, guild QoL, market upgrade, transport contracts, .. the list goes on)
All the best,
Korn
So we’re shifting our focus. Our core players can go ahead and take that break; they’ve earned it. But those of us that are staying in Albion Online for this beta — primarily myself, Eckhart, Elysium, Cips, and a few others — will be focusing on execution of our master launch plans and growing our numbers. To do that effectively, we must go to where the people are. Sooooooo that puts us smack in the middle of two places — NORTH country and back to Queens — as Redwater Bend is practically a ghost town. There isn’t a worthless soul in sight, often for days.
I don’t want to exactly say where we’re headed to in the north, but we’ll be playing with some of our old and dear friends from Ultima Online (Undead Lords) and World of Warcraft (Mostly Harmless). We will keep our alliance together for at least the foreseeable future, however… come live I do think we will be aligning ourselves with our old friends. This is also going to bring us back to Queens (and actually the passage to and from Queens up to the North where we are is SOOOOOO much faster!) where we can build up new players to join our GvG teams.
So good bye boring Ghost Town… *waves* …. moving on to the future!