Fans are pouring over $9M into awesome sounding new MMORPG – That never came out, now fires last employee

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The indie MMORPG “Chronicles of Elyria” was a great hope for some MMORPG fans in 2016: For some it was a kind of “Star Citizen” of fantasy MMORPGs. Backers poured over $9 million into the project. But the golden days are long gone. The founder of the game is again a lone fighter in 2023, he had to lay off the last employee.

What is this strange situation?

  • Chronicles of Elyria was the vision of one man: Jeromy Walsh. He started the project in 2016, selling his belongings for it. It raised $1.3 million through crowdfunding and later raised more than $7.7 million through his game’s website.
  • Walsh envisioned a fantastical vision of an MMORPG where heroes could age and die, promising backers an experience like no other: essentially a fully simulated, highly complex fantasy world.
  • With the money from the fans, Walsh gradually built up a studio. But his actual plan was apparently different: he wanted to use the fans’ money to develop a prototype that was so good that he could get an established publisher to put a lot more money into the studio and make his dream come true.

    • Chronicles of Elyria – the Star Citizen among the MMORPGs

    what went wrong Walsh couldn’t find a publisher who believed in him and his project enough to finance the mammoth MMORPG.

    A pre-alpha of the game was released on March 20, 2020, which shocked many fans: it had nothing in common with the vision of a great MMORPG that was described. In retrospect, the pre-alpha was probably a last, desperate attempt to convince anyone of the project.

    However, on March 24, 2020, the developer announced the closure of the studio.

    4 crowdfunding MMORPGs that really flopped

    When fans complained, the CEO carried on without resources

    It was so absurd after the end: After the announcement of closing the game, people who had invested money in the MMORPG reacted angrily. They felt cheated and announced a lawsuit.

    Since then, Walsh has apparently been struggling to somehow avoid this lawsuit. Apparently he now wants to “complete” the MMORPG by force so that he can still get out of the matter.

    He’s out of money, staff, and resources, and lawsuits are raging down his neck, but he perseveres.

    This is the situation now: In a January 12, 2023 blog post, Walsh announced:

  • They had to fire their last full-time designer, Snipehunter, in Q4 2022. He had become a good friend over the years – but Walsh could no longer raise his salary because of the lawsuits
  • The studio behind the MMORPG is now a “one man” studio again
  • But in 2023 he starts with new energy and promises to release “Kindgoms of Elyria: Settlement” in 2023

    • Player pays $10,000 to become king in MMORPG – subjects rebel

    Many people are angry with the MMORPG project – see it as a scam

    What’s the reaction? On the mmorpg.com site reporting on this case, one can only shake one’s head. For people in the comments, the dream of “Chronicles of Elyria” has been dead for at least 3 years. That the man is still working on it now, many see as a farce. They feel disappointed, deceived and robbed of their money.

    In their eyes, the vision that was once promised to them and in which they had invested was so far removed from reality that many speak of a scam.

    One user says: “This man will continue his scam his whole life until he dies.”

    For a long time it looked like MMORPG Camelot Unchained would fare very similarly to Chronicles of Elyria, but they seem to have managed the turnaround that went so terribly wrong with Chronicles of Elyria 2020:

    Legendary MMORPG designer cheers on new game: “Hit another home run”

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