Fractured Online had a reasonably successful beta period, launching into Early Access on September 15, 2022 on Steam. Now the MMORPG on Steam only has 23 players in the 24-hour peak, but what actually happened?
What is Fractured Online? In the run-up, the game was presented as the first truly dynamic sandbox MMORPG, and it also brought some really good ideas. Your playing style is fundamentally determined by the race you want to play.
While the Wildfolk as a player people can only act in PvE and live peacefully, as a demon there is tough full-loot open-world PvP and even experience for killing other players. As a human, you choose the middle ground, where PvP is possible but punished.
Each of the three races has its own planet and travel between them is possible. The visitors then have to adapt to the rules that prevail there. Other core features sound similarly interesting:
Where does Fractured currently stand? The sandbox MMORPG has been in Early Access on Steam since September 15 and is expected to remain there until the first half of 2023. You can currently secure access from €25.99 and then start gambling.
The game isn’t feature-complete yet. Among other things, the demon people are still missing in early access and should only be submitted later for the final release.
What sounds great on paper doesn’t seem to really convince. On Steam, the MMO currently only has 42% positive ratings from a total of 380 reviews and the number of players also looks terrible.
In the last 24 hours, a maximum of 23 players have played simultaneously via Steam Fractured (as of November 7th, 4:00 p.m., via steamdb). That’s only around 1.5% of the 1,515 players at launch.
The game is also losing attention in the media. While at his best 4,045 viewers on Twitch watched how Fractured Online is played, in November there were only a maximum of 6 simultaneous viewers (as of November 7th, 4:00 p.m., via twitchtracker).
It should be noted that Fractured Online also has its own launcher, Glyph, whose numbers are not public, but Steam numbers and Twitch viewers are often a good trend. However, a volunteer community worker from the developers confirmed that “a lot more” fans are logging in via Glyph (via reddit).
You can see the Fractured launch trailer here:
Fractured Online – Early Access Launch Trailer
What’s going on at Fractured Online?
Why are the players leaving? Fractured’s Early Access launch on Steam didn’t go as well as hoped. Many fans had problems connecting to the server and even purchasing on Steam sometimes didn’t go through smoothly.
If you were then able to log in, numerous game errors and crashes awaited you, especially at the beginning. Which is to be expected for early access, but many people in the community were bothered by it.
The developers delivered patches almost every day to smooth out some errors, but for some it wasn’t fast enough. So many fans disappeared just days after the Early Access launch, leaving ugly reviews behind.
Many fans praise the actual idea and the concepts of the MMORPG, but for some the game is simply too unfinished even for early access. This picture is clearly reflected in the reviews on Steam (via Steam).
Although the developers are diligently improving and bringing updates, this is only slowly changing the ratings. But still: At the launch, Fractured only had 38% positive reviews, the ratings of the last 14 days are already 56%.
Fans want to come back later: The opinion is similar in reddit, even if the mood here is generally more positive towards the MMORPG than on Steam itself. PvP fans in particular are out there in the forums, for whom Fractured currently still has too little to offer.
Especially in reddit there are numerous comments saying that they are waiting for the full release and the demon race to be able to play PvP properly. Also, some fans are hoping that the entire game will run smoother and smoother by launch.
However, Fractured Online seem to have completely written off the at least ones. The ideas of the MMORPG are also often praised here and called innovative (via reddit).
What do you think of Fractured Online? Have you checked out the MMORPG? Is it for you and you too just waiting for new content and a smoother experience? Or are you more of the opinion that Fractured can no longer be saved at launch? Write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO.
10 things to get you started in Fractured Online easier