According to an article on Dutch website, Gamez.nl, Spellborn Works, the Dutch developers behind The Chronicles of Spellborn are now bankrupt. 

This news leaves the future of The Chronicles of Spellborn hanging in the air. The article does mention a rumor that Frogster Asia would transform the title into a free-to-play title in order to keep it running, but there doesn't appear to be anything to substantiate that at the moment.

UPDATE: The "rumor" has been confirmed in a press release issued by Frogster.

You can find the press release below:

Free-to-Play-Version of The Chronicles of Spellborn scheduled for release in 2010

Berlin, 30.06.2009: The Chronicles of Spellborn is going go be re-designed into a freeto-play version in conduct of its publisher Frogster. The reorientation of the revenue model will be accompanied by fundamental enhancements of the game-play concept and game mechanics of the innovative fantasy online role-playing game. The further development will be carried out through a joint venture between the developer Spellborn NV and Frogster Asia Co., Ltd in Korea, the Korean subsidiary of Frogster bringing in its expertise in the field of free-to-play and microtransactions.

After the re-development, the current subscription model will be switched to a free-to-play system supported by micro-transactions. This will open the vast game world of The Chronicles of Spellborn with its rich lore and game-play in its entirety without level cap to all interested players. Until then, the European and US American live version of the online world will be operated in its current form via the subscription service. At the point where the new version is released, any unused subscriptions will be credited to the accounts of the respective subscribers.

The full story is available here (in Dutch) for a Google translated version, go here.

The F2P changeover announcement can be found here.

 Holy shizzo.

There goes the MMO with the most innovative features I've seen in a while, RIP TCoS (a P2P turning into F2P is really like that, and when the real developers no longer develop the game, the game is truly not the same as it was intended anymore)  and I hope we see more of your features in other games in the future.

This is sad news. I never played Spellborn but I was debating on it. Looks like a decent game. I didn't not read the whole article but are they going to wipe the servers when they restart it as f2p?

What a shame. I had a great time with Spellborn. One of the best times, in fact.

Rumor?

Frogster has given a press announcement today which confirms Frogster Asia will transform it into a F2P game with a relaunch in 2010.

Link:
https://eu-players.tcos.com/forum/showpost.php?p=55433&postcount=21

+++ Press Release of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG+++

Free-to-Play-Version of The Chronicles of Spellborn scheduled for release in 2010

Berlin, 30.06.2009: The Chronicles of Spellborn is going go be re-designed into a freeto-play version in conduct of its publisher Frogster. The reorientation of the revenue model will be accompanied by fundamental enhancements of the game-play concept and game mechanics of the innovative fantasy online role-playing game. The further development will be carried out through a joint venture between the developer Spellborn NV and Frogster Asia Co., Ltd in Korea, the Korean subsidiary of Frogster bringing in its expertise in the field of free-to-play and microtransactions.

After the re-development, the current subscription model will be switched to a free-to-play system supported by micro-transactions. This will open the vast game world of The Chronicles of Spellborn with its rich lore and game-play in its entirety without level cap to all interested players. Until then, the European and US American live version of the online world will be operated in its current form via the subscription service. At the point where the new version is released, any unused subscriptions will be credited to the accounts of the
respective subscribers.

You guys here should be a bit more up to date...

Originally posted by GtoNiseR

Rumor?

Frogster has given a press announcement today which confirms Frogster Asia will transform it into a F2P game with a relaunch in 2010.

Link:
https://eu-players.tcos.com/forum/showpost.php?p=55433&postcount=21

+++ Press Release of Frogster Interactive Pictures AG+++

Free-to-Play-Version of The Chronicles of Spellborn scheduled for release in 2010

Berlin, 30.06.2009: The Chronicles of Spellborn is going go be re-designed into a freeto-play version in conduct of its publisher Frogster. The reorientation of the revenue model will be accompanied by fundamental enhancements of the game-play concept and game mechanics of the innovative fantasy online role-playing game. The further development will be carried out through a joint venture between the developer Spellborn NV and Frogster Asia Co., Ltd in Korea, the Korean subsidiary of Frogster bringing in its expertise in the field of free-to-play and microtransactions.

After the re-development, the current subscription model will be switched to a free-to-play system supported by micro-transactions. This will open the vast game world of The Chronicles of Spellborn with its rich lore and game-play in its entirety without level cap to all interested players. Until then, the European and US American live version of the online world will be operated in its current form via the subscription service. At the point where the new version is released, any unused subscriptions will be credited to the accounts of the
respective subscribers.

 

You guys here should be a bit more up to date...

Thanks.

It hasn't "gone" anywhere it is still p2p, so I think the correct choice of words would have been "going" f2p if its not going to start until next year.

Blame falls squarly on the Developers desision over the publishers,  a staggered region release upwards of a 6month delay, different publishes for different countries, grouping UK and US players on the same server?

Sad to say SoE would of done a much better job. Hell im goona say it.. "sell to SoE and give it a chance".

played TCoS in closed beta.. it was worth a 2nd look (never had the time). oh well.

Hate to say it, but...

Mention The Chronicles of Spellborn and everyone screams, "INNOVATION!" but all I see is the same themepark, linear game with a different swing on combat and character development. Actual gameplay? Quest, quest, quest all the way to max level with delivery and kill quests, hardly any grouping content, virtually any and all content is near soloable, and the group content maxes at what, four.

Not to mention people lash out on Darkfall and Age of Conan for launching without promised features; Spellborn did the same. None of the end-game content (shard conquest, House vs House, full-working arena) was present at game, and most of it is still yet to be delivered. Top that with the very, very numerous quest bugs, skill bugs, and overall bland trial experience, it's no wonder they couldn't hold on to subscribers.

I enjoyed the graphical swing, depending on my mood. The atmosphere was well done, but very.. almost depressing, and sad. Which works, but that's the feeling of the whole world. The combat was enjoyable, but it wasn't enough to make up for the lack of originality elsewhere. They expected everyone to grasp onto the skilldeck and active swinging and hope it blinded them from the actual gameplay, the leveling, and the progression, or lack thereof. The gameplay was solid, it felt it at least, it just had no lasting appeal, and nothing to work for, unless you really only cared about cosmetics, which I personally don't.

Good concept, pretty bad execution. But I think what really sealed the deal was the publishers. The IP blocks really bled the population out, and I don't think everyone forgot about Acclaim's billing, and complete and utter lack of communication, and any effort at even advertising the game. Maybe different publishers could of brought more players in, players that gave constructive criticism and not, "THIS GAME IS THE BEST EVAR" and forced the devs to fix their mistakes earlier. But that wasn't the case, and look where we are now.

.. told ya so.

Now to try and figure out HOW to make it work as a F2P when gear is virtually worthless, other than cosmetics, and you can reach max level within a month. XP pots, gems, or whatever aren't needed. Some deep gameplay mechanics are going to have to give somewhere, and that's not very promising to me, at least on paper.

 

It's too bad. TCoS was a breath of fresh air. I have to agree with others it is the fault of the SiL for the piss poor way they handled the games publishing. I am sure POS Acclaim is celebrating though since now they can transform TCoS into one of other POS micro-transaction games.

F2P micro-trans eh??

/uninstall

So much for that.

Wish I could say I was surprised.

I played Spellborn for a while; I was in the closed beta right up to near where it went live. The whole time the game was buggy; and I mean basic stuff like missing textures, missing NPCs....at one point VERY close to open a number of quest NPCs were inaccessible because the path leading to them just was not there...hordes of unimplemented features and minor little irritant bugs...

The combat roller was a great idea. That to me was the only thing the game had going for it. Sadly, that's not enough.

Originally posted by terrant

Wish I could say I was surprised.

 

I played Spellborn for a while; I was in the closed beta right up to near where it went live. The whole time the game was buggy; and I mean basic stuff like missing textures, missing NPCs....at one point VERY close to open a number of quest NPCs were inaccessible because the path leading to them just was not there...hordes of unimplemented features and minor little irritant bugs...

 

The combat roller was a great idea. That to me was the only thing the game had going for it. Sadly, that's not enough.

Odd. I was in CB as well, never experienced those issues. Oh well.

Sadly I'm rather un-surprised myself. While the game had a lot going for it, it was pretty much 100% solo mmorog, and got very lonely. There was really NOTHING to do but quest and kill.

So..when you got tired of wandering from solo quest to solo quest in an empty, alien land....you went and played something else.

I really loved what the game had going for it though...combat was fun (before you got tired of doing nothing else), the artistic style was awesome. As cool and innovative as I found the lack of a gear grind (other than a couple of exceptions...), at the same time most of my quest rewards were vendor fodder as a result, I almost never got a cool drop, and I came to realise that gear is fundamentally important to an MMORPG. It adds a lot to the fun factor.

Anyway...it's a sad turn of events. I'll NEVER play an RMT based game, so I'll never play Spellborn again.

I'm not surprised either, I tried the trial, and besides the combat, the game wasn't that fun, and didn't justify a P2P for me. The lack of being able to check what a mob's name was annoyed me, the quests from the start? My god... please, killing one type of pig is enough, don't tell me to kill 10 different types.

At least now the game is worth the price of admission to me. :P

Originally posted by aleos

It hasn't "gone" anywhere it is still p2p, so I think the correct choice of words would have been "going" f2p if its not going to start until next year.

You are correct. I have changed the title to reflect this, thanks!

Unlike their fanbois, I among many other people who DID play the game, predicted this would happen withing 6 months of N.A. launch ... alas ... it happened. I'm not happy this happened at all, but I feel redeemed to how we were flame when we brought up all the outstanding issues with the game. If game companies only look to their fanbois for feedback this is exactly what happens. The exact same thing will likely happened to DDO -- and probably the reason their "F2P" scheme will also fail.

Peace.

I remember awaiting this game years ago because it sounded so promising. Too bad the game didn't age well with time, and by the time I COULD play it it felt like nothing special to me. Granted the combat system is a step up from the usual MMO fare, but that's all it has. Everything else is average or so...as for bugs I didn't pay much attention to them; every game has bugs yanno? Ah, well. Too bad for TCoS :/

Like others here, I tried the Spellborn trial and very much enjoyed the novelty of the combat. I also think the world design and quest texts were sometimes extremely well done and at first I thought I would subscribe even though eventually I didn't. So this is indeed a sad turn of events for Spellborn. I didn't stay because there was too much emphasis on PvP and not enough on PvE group play for me... plus, the world was somehow a bit depressing, as someone else said, and just a bit too alien perhaps.

Also, we really are getting tired of the kill 10 rat solo quests... and the collect 5 blue marbles that were eaten by rats (which effectively means killing 10 rats... again). Spellborn had a few too many of these for me. Fine, for learning combat at level 1, you do need a few of these. After that though, I just think players should be given the option to avoid them, and to focus on the more story-driven quest lines. You could still have them, for the people that actually like them, or don't mind them, just mark them clearly as what they are.

Generally, I do find it frustrating not knowing beforehand which quests lead to more interesting quests... and often when I see the quest is a fairly bland kill 10 rats quest I want to delete it but I worry I will miss out on the quests that follow... end up doing the stupid quest and finding it doesn't lead anywhere and then I get pissed off at the game.

Anyhoo, back to Spellborn, something about it just didn't appeal enough to enough people, including me and that's a real pity.