Rift is a fantasy MMORPG developed by Trion Worlds and released in 2011. At release it wanted to be better than World of Warcraft – now it’s dying.
What kind of game is this? The gameplay of Rift is strongly reminiscent of WoW, but it comes with its own mechanics: the “Rifts”. These are located in the game world and offer players large world events.
The MMORPG offers a flexible class system with 3 races and 36 so-called souls, which allows players to play numerous combinations. You play as a chosen hero who must protect the kingdom of Telara.
Rift also offers classic PvE and PvP content that has had regular updates and major expansions for years.
Rift has also been playable on Steam since 2013. There it receives 74% positive reviews over the entire period.
No content, just rehashed events
What happened to Rift? The MMORPG appeared in 2011 with a subscription model, but switched to Free2Play a year later. Initially, it could not convince enough players and therefore only offered an optional subscription.
In 2018, the German publisher gamigo bought the studio Trion Worlds. Then it got quiet and players wondered when new content would come. The developers then decided to release many smaller patches rather than a few large ones.
So far this hasn’t worked at all. In 2021 there were only events that had been there before. For early 2022, gamigo then announced an update that fans were still waiting for in December. As “new content”, Rift then got the old Battle Pass – reheated.
In 2018, a Rift Classic server was launched. It was very popular at first, but apparently had too many problems and was switched off by gamigo in March 2019 with a “heavy heart” but without any reason.
Here’s a trailer for Rift from 2017:
Trailer for the fantasy MMORPG Rift
Is Rift threatened with imminent death?
A lack of updates and low player counts suggest that Rift may not last much longer. MeinMMO author Alexander Leitsch predicts that the MMORPG Rift is among those that will die in 2023.
According to SteamDB, just under 200 players were online in the peak in the last 24 hours. In addition, there are the players who use Rift’s own client. So it’s actually a little over 200 players. For a genre that thrives on high numbers of players, these values are still critical.
gamigo posts news on the official website and on Steam. But the latest news was again warmed-up content. Sweepstakes also apparently took place, but new content is not in sight.
What do you think about the MMORPG? Do you think gamigo Rift will shut down soon? Or does the game survive because of its loyal fans? Have you tried it and gained your own experience with it? Write it to us in the comments here on MeinMMO!
These MMORPGs, on the other hand, have a high number of players:
The 10 most played MMORPGs on Steam in January 2023