Yep, I'm Officially Worried About The Future Of Pantheon: Rise Of The Fallen Now

It's been a weird couple of weeks for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen.

Back in the July Producer's Letter, the MMORPG announced that it would start prepping for 24/7 alpha access. This announcement was met with a fair amount of anticipation as all testing prior to this had been very limited in both scope and duration.

The shift towards 24/7 access was to accomplish a few internal goals such as collecting more data points on population, content feedback, and more, but it also gave the team a chance to better test networking code, server structure, and would hopefully allow more users to take part in tests. Previous tests being very limited in time led to players not participating much (if at all) due to limited content and a "well it's just a day or two, I'll wait for the next bigger test" mindset from some players.

The letter goes on to talk about what content will be available in the 24/7 testing and states, "we are introducing a new play mode to our testers. The goal of the play mode is to offer a form of progression that is engaging enough to keep people playing, while content is being built and added. This play mode is not a replacement for the full Pantheon, but instead offers a way to consume existing content in smaller doses while more gets added."

Exact details on what the play mode included were meant to come after the initial testers had a chance to provide feedback in September but, to date, no additional details have been announced on the Pantheon site. The post DID conclude by saying that this "new mode" only took about 5% of the team's efforts and 95% was still focused on content creation.

So what happened next?

Well, the Pantheon team announced an art style change that focused a bit more on scalability and moving away from Unity assets. The new art style has been divisive and has caused some long-time backers of the project to be a bit upset with the new vision not being what they decided to support almost 9 years ago. While some like the art style, others on social media comments liken the new direction to a "WoW-clone", a mobile game, or even akin to the EverQuest Next/EverQuest Landmark debacle.

Then, this past week, things got a little weird in the Pantheon 24/7 test.

We started receiving emails from readers who were in the test saying that things weren't exactly what they expected. (We'll refrain from giving reader names here like we normally do, but THANK YOU to all who reached out!)

Rather than getting access to an alpha of an MMORPG as they reasonably might have assumed they were getting, the "new mode" spoken to in the July letter was more akin to a 1-hour "survival" type game. While you could pick PvP or PvE modes, be given some objectives to complete, and explore a random part of a zone, the mode was kind of "hardcore" and a death meant you were out and needed to queue up into another "match".

To be fair, Pantheon DID say this test was a "special mode." On the other hand though, no details of WHAT the mode was were given before testing kicked off and it's reasonable to think that some seeing 24/7 testing for an MMORPG they have been following meant they would finally get a chance to test the MMORPG a bit. This doesn't even touch the fact that players need to purchase packs (which start at a price of $50) to access this test.

Needless to say, some users weren't thrilled.

Now we get to a bit of "rumor" in the story though.

A communication, allegedly from Visionary Realms, has been shared with us from multiple readers. The communication seems to be a response to the monetization of the 24/7 test, why the team went that route, and what it would allow Pantheon to do going forward.

Upon reading the full communication, we reached out to the team to ask about an interview to clear up any confusion and give the team a chance to respond to the criticisms coming from backers and were told that the team would be putting up their own communication soon (they shared a more narrow timeframe with us, but we'll refrain from giving that out exactly in case the team needs to change plans for some reason) and that if we felt an interview was needed after that communication was sent out, one could be scheduled.

We then asked if the team could at least confirm that the 24/7 update communication was legit and did come from them as we planned to write up a piece today and wanted to at least confirm the communication's legitimacy. After a rather pithy reply back to us for simply trying to confirm if a certain communication was sent from them or not, a reply which I won't share here, and us asking again for simple confirmation on the communication being theirs, we have yet to receive any new reply. We'll update this section should a reply come later.

So what did the alleged communication say?

Ben Dean from Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, October 12, 2023. Over the past week, you may have heard rumors of Visionary Realms' plans for monetizing 247 and the future of Pantheon.

We want to address this topic, so you are aware of our actual position and plans and not speculation. 247 was conceived as a means to keep testers engaged for longer periods of time so we could support 24/7 testing and gather the data we needed from a persistent long-running environment. We were aware of its potential to be monetized, and we were equally aware that if we made that decision it would need to be considered carefully and thoughtfully.

We are in a position now where crowdfunding has slowed and there is still a lot of worldbuilding and content to create. Continuing this trajectory is not reasonable. We could continue, and Pantheon would launch, but it would still be a long time from now. We have made huge advances in efficiency and velocity, but its projected launch is still years off at this pace. If we can monetize 247, not only can it potentially earn some revenue, but it can gain positive attention from potential partners to invest in Visionary Realms as a company so that we can launch Pantheon in a more reasonable time frame.

So, for the remainder of this year, and potentially into next year, promotions and online content for Pantheon as an MMO will slow as we focus on 247. Everything that is used in 247 is usable content for Pantheon as an MMO, so its development is continuing. We anticipate bringing the MMO client back for testing next year and we aim to bring Alpha pledges in to test 247 in the coming weeks.

We understand the challenges of this decision. We understand that there will be a percentage of Pantheon fans who will be upset. But from responses we are seeing from player activity and feedback almost 2 weeks after 247 testing has started, there is also a good game here and that means a chance at getting the resources Pantheon needs to launch.

If you feel this doesn't meet your expectations or desires, we understand that, and we will see you once we bring the MMO testing back, planned for next year. If, on the other hand, you want to continue to support the project, we will be sending out a survey next week to gain insight from your perspective. We encourage everyone to participate in the survey, whether 247 is something you are interested in or not. The responses, coupled with the in-game activity datapoints we are gathering will greatly help us in our decision-making process.

If you've been following Pantheon for a while, there may be a few items in that communication that concern you as they do me.

First, it reiterates the purpose of 24/7 in gathering more data and assisting with development of the actual MMO's content (this is likely another thing players will compare to the EQNext/Landmark timeline).

Second, the testing of the actual MMO is done for the year and won't return until 2024. Marketing and promotions for the MMO will cease until sometime next year, too.

Third, it appears that crowdfunding is drying up and another revenue stream is needed if the MMO is to actually release in any reasonable timeframe. The team doesn't imply that it CAN'T come out with the current revenue stream, just that it would be a long time if this road is maintained.

Monetizing 24/7 gives the team a new potential revenue steam in players buying access, but interestingly it's also mentioned that it could be used to basically market the game to potential investors. This is the point that hits me the most. Again, the team is not saying they don't have the cash needed to release, but they are saying it just would take years and years on top of the years Pantheon has already been in the works to release and a potential investor would greatly expedite things.

In addition to stating that the team is now focused on 24/7, the other item of concern for me is the phrase "there is also a good game here (referring to 24/7's mode) and that means a chance at getting the resources Pantheon needs to launch."

It's been a meme for us Pantheon followers for a while now about the game "never coming out", and again, the team (if the statement did indeed come from them) does go to great lengths to try and point out that the MMO is still "coming", but this does read an awful lot like a "we need cash" post.

24/7 isn't a "game" yet, and even if it is, it certainly isn't the game backers have been supporting for years now.

A lot seems to be shifting to the success of 24/7 as a revenue stream and potential investor advertising tool. That doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the MMORPG side of things going forward. Pantheon was always ambitious, no doubt. Backing MMORPGs via crowdfunding is always a risky endeavor and one that is more often met with failure than success, but Pantheon looked to be at least headed to where it needed to go, even if it was doing it very slowly.

Now...well, I'm personally not too sure about the future of the MMORPG. How about you?