Back again, as promised, with some thoughts. Actually, that link below doesn't contain the whole letter, so I'm posting it here for everyone to read in its entirety, and I've added a few comments at the bottom:
Greetings all,
I’m afraid I have some really bad news.
Funcom is putting Midgard on permanent hold - entombing it in the permafrost, so to speak - and moving on.
It may sound brutal, but there are several reasons why we're not going to proceed with Midgard at this point.
If you look at the massively multiplayer online worlds in production, it's obvious that there are lots of great medieval fantasy games in the pipeline, and many of them will feature game-play similar to what we’ve designed for Midgard.
Midgard was a unique concept, and it was never going to be "just another fantasy world". After all, it was based around the exciting history and mythology of the Viking Sagas. But, since much of modern fantasy springs from Northern European mythology, Midgard would still be pitched against a number of broadly similar settings.
Basically, what that means, is that Midgard was the right game at the wrong time.
There’s still some hope, however distant and faint. Midgard remains a strong and unique concept, and we'd love to get back to it... some sunny day.
If we ever do decide to restart the project, however, Midgard won't see the light of day until 2006 - at the earliest. We're going to keep the website and the forums up-and-running, but don't expect to hear anything more about the game... at least not for another few years.
So there you have it, guys. Thanks for your support and for sticking with us this long, and keep in mind that, although I'm as heartbroken as you are, I also believe that we've made the right decision. Our options are wide open now, and Funcom will make another massively multiplayer online game.
In the meantime, go play Anarchy Online! It may not have any Vikings or longboats or fjords, but it's a great game getting better by the day!
Farewell,
Ragnar
Ex-Game Director of Midgard (RIP)I don't expect this news to come as a great shock to anyone. After all, it's almost exactly one year since the Midgard-team was put to work on AO. But it's still sad. There was a lot of promise in the concept and in the work we did, especially with the design, and with the concept and pre-production art. Hopefully we'll be able to post some of it on the site -- there's so much great art, it'd be a real shame if it went to waste. The good thing was that a lot of those talented people were put to work on Anarchy Online, and really making a difference. Compare AO as it was a year ago to how it is today. How's that for a makeover? The AO team did do a great job, given the circumstances, but they needed help, and help they got.
So, Midgard's death was never in vain, not for a second. Funcom is still around, we still have the only big sci-fi MMOG out there, and we're still kicking arse and taking names...whatever that means.
As for why we've decided to let Midgard go... Fact is, this is not the best time to put a lot of time and effort into a fantasy-style MMOG...especially one as ambitious as Midgard, with gameplay that's never been proven to work in a massively multiplayer setting. Like the letter above says, I do hope we can return to Midgard some sunny day. But not today.
This is also a strange and unfortunate day to be breaking the news, but that's just coincidence, so don't read anything into it. We were going to make this announcement on Monday, but -- surprise, surprise -- there were delays. And there's so much else happening, it's hard for everyone to get everything out on time. Witness the latest patch, for example. Trust me when I say it's better to do it right than to deliver on time.
It's late, I'm tired, and I have one more post I want to write before hitting the hay. But I expect there'll be a lot of reader mail tomorrow, so I'll post some of your
comments in the journal, and talk more about Midgard soon.
And, hey, one more thing: Don't ask me -- well, you can ask, but don't expect an answer -- about any Next Big Thing. Funcom will keep making games, but when, and what, and how, and why...that's an issue for another time. We're not going to make any announcements any time soon, and AO will remain our number one priority for a long time, especially with the Booster Pack and Expansion Pack in the pipeline. They're both occupying a lot of people's time, believe me. So the fact that Midgard is going into permanent hibernation doesn't mean that there's anything to replace it with. But neither does it mean that there's nothing to replace it with. Either way, you won't hear it from me. 'kay? Good.
