Gods & Heroes Rome Rising is dead

[Daehawk]

dead:

    Perpetual Entertainment has ceased operations. The company sold its game development platform and Star Trek Online to a major independent game developer, who will continue its operations in the same San Francisco studio under the same management. Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising does not appear to be part of the deal and thus appears to be canceled.

    Our source tells us that the majority of the Gods and Heroes development team has been let go as part of the move, which comes only a few weeks after they had downsized and pushed back the release date. The Star Trek Online team, those who worked on the Perpetual Platform (which was recently licensed to BioWare) and a small number of people from the Gods and Heroes team will be rehired into the reformed studio where development will continue on the two remaining projects.

I was just playing this the other night too I hope Star Trek makes it.

[CeeKay]

I guess Lockdown won't be getting his beta code after all.......

[Jag]

RIP. Was fun while it lasted.

[Zarkon]

Where's this quote from?

[Daehawk]

Where's this quote from?

Warcry

[Knightshade Dragon]

Wow - what I saw was impressive enough.  I wonder what did them in... 

[CeeKay]

The main site has some info on it too, probably the same stuff that's on Warcry.

[Zarkon]

Yup.  It's official.  Pretty much, from what I can tell, it was money-related.

[EngineNo9]

That's too bad since it looked like it had some original elements and a theme not seen in other MMO's, but I never did get the damn beta to work without crashing or missing models and textures. 

[unbreakable]

And another MMO bites the dust.

[biggercup]

Too bad... It's one of few MMORPG game that I was interested in.
It was few MMORPG game that support single player play.

[Arkon]

This is a shame as I really was enjoying the Beta.  It had issues, but it really was alot of fun and had a nice unique setting.

[Jag]

Too bad... It's one of few MMORPG game that I was interested in.
It was few MMORPG game that support single player play.

Yeah, i liked the fact i could solo play, but yet see other people and help them out...or not. Of course WoW had this too at the lower levels, but the minion system was supposed help avoid the need to group if you couldn't do it.

[Jumangi]

That's too bad since it looked like it had some original elements and a theme not seen in other MMO's, but I never did get the damn beta to work without crashing or missing models and textures. 

I have a feeling this type of thing will start to happen all of the MMO's that were announced over the last few years. The "Oklahoma land rush" of development that occured is starting to hit the brick wall on the big costs these game entail and the complexity of them.

[corruptrelic]

Too bad... It's one of few MMORPG game that I was interested in.
It was few MMORPG game that support single player play.

+1 This was about the only MMORPG on the horizon that I was looking forward to.
I guess we'll have to go back to Guild Wars or wait for Guild Wars 2 for those of us that prefer solo play (with the assistance of AI henchmen)

[Blackjack]

MMOPRG.com has an interesting Gods & Heroes "postmortem" by a former writer/content designer:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?GAMEID=187&PAGE=1&BHCP=1&SETVIEW=features&LOADFEATURE=1520&bhcp=1

The game's sudden change in status came as something of a surprise, not just to those involved in the game's development (including many people who had worked on it for much longer than I had), but also to the game's many devoted community members and Beta testers. However, it was not altogether unusual. Cancelled games, it seems, are fairly common in the industry; Wikipedia has a list of over a thousand, and from my discussions with other writers and designers I daresay that anyone who's worked in the game industry has probably worked on at least one title that was held, cancelled, shelved, or otherwise never shipped.

I was in the beta for a bit (a friend -- actually, a falling out we had (not over G&H) drove me from his message board to here  -- got me in). Honest, I was excited, and the beta made me lose interest in a week. What the Hellgate demo seems to have done to most people here (squash interest in a game they were keen on because it's not what they envisioned/dreamed of), the G&H beta did to me - but I felt like maybe it just too early in the beta and maybe it would be something special down the road. I love squad stuff in any genre. It seemed tailor made for me. The last interviews I read suggested they realized that a lot of work needed to be done -- that they'd improve the interface, they'd make the quests more interesting etc., but the game had been in development a long time.

It needed serious UI improvements and a whole lot of quest work if it was going to survive in the MMO market. It doesn't seem like an accident that a lot of mmorpgs are either going "totally free" (see RF Online recently), getting delayed many months (Conan and Warhammer Online), getting the plug pulled (Auto Assault) or dying before they get to see the light of day (G&H, or go back to Mythic's Imperator) or they axe the company CEO (See Turbine). My pet theory is maybe publishers are getting scared of just how much work and money a successful, profitable, long term MMO is to launch. Or else they're just so scared of WoW that they've gotten cold feet about the market.

[Daehawk]

Imperator was the last big MMO I was really looking forward to

[Blackjack]

This is pretty intentionally funny (by an MMO news site):

Wandering Goblin's Gods and Heroes Beta Key Giveaway
http://www.wanderinggoblin.com/literaturedetail.php?id=69

So here's how the contest works: all you have to do to win is email us at GoblinStaff [at] WanderingGoblin [dot] com, explaining why you think you deserve a Gods and Heroes beta key. If we like your explanation, you'll be one of our 10 oh-so-lucky winners! And if you win (and you really want the key), we'll be happy to pop your beta key in an envelope and send it to you postage-paid. It's all absolutely free.

What you'll win:

1. A genuine Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising beta card.

2. A real never-been-used beta key, printed right on the card.

3. The exclusive right to participate in an event unknown anywhere else in the MMO genre: the beta for a game that no longer exists.

4. Early access to innovative features of Gods and Heroes, including the minion system, which no one (including you) will ever see.

5. Your progress (up to level 15) will be saved, and your characters will continue onto the live servers when the game launches. Though this will never actually occur, it's fun to have something to look forward to!

They also have a snappy summary of the rise and fall of the Non Game:

First, developer Perpetual got a substantial number of investors. Then they hired a bunch of programmers and artists and game-making people. They they announced that the game was content complete, then they fired a lot of their own people, then they pushed back the release date of their 'content complete' game.

Thanks for working so hard to develop this great game! BTW, you're all fired.

At just the right time, when everything was looking up, Perpetual got more investors, became involved in a baffling business partnership, pushed the release date back another time, sent out the pre-order boxes for people to buy, launched beta, fired more of their own employees to make the beta better (yes, really), changed their relationship with their publisher, and then, at the worst possible moment, suddenly and inexplicably cancelled the game.

Rome sure was a confusing place.

I was looking forward to Imperator as well. I guess Rome and Rome-Sci-Fi MMOs are not in the cards. 

[Blackjack]

Oh, btw, all over the walls in Hellgate are travel posters for Rome, usually next to the in-game ad for Dark Horse Comics. The Rome posters always reminds me of this game.