Masthead Studios has announced that service for Earthrise will cease as of today, Thursday, February 9th. According to Atanas Atanasov, Director of Masthead Studios, the team felt that Earthrise had been released too early and never managed to meet its players' expectations.

Here is the announcement in its entirety:

Masthead Studios announced today that it will be shutting down the Earthrise servers on 9th of February.

“One year after the launch of the game, we have decided to stop the Earthrise servers. Earthrise was released too early and did not meet the expectations of its fans” said Atanas Atanasov, Director of Masthead Studios. “We did our best to revive the game in 2011, but the time was not enough to keep up with the user requirements. There is a huge interest in high quality open world sandbox MMORPGs, unfortunately the big publishers do not show any interest in the genre. It is unfortunate that low budget companies like ours are trying to bring innovativeness in the already saturated MMO market. I hope that one day an independent studio will be able to release the long anticipated open world sandbox MMO, which everyone is talking about, but no one is making. We tried, but did not succeed. We would like to apologize to those who were disappointed from Earthrise and to thank everyone who supported us during the years.”

The free to play version of Earthrise, which was planned for 2012 may be released only if there is investor or publisher interest.

Check out the Earthrise site for more information. As yet, this announcement is not live on the web page.

Shame, it is not a bad game and not a bad idea. But, it was just one more unfinished product in mmo industry.

As expected when the game went F2P late last year. Sad to see yet an other indy MMO bite the dust...

@Nimar, the game itself was AWFUL.  The idea was not bad.

Acutally the idea was good the hame was horrid.

they released it knowing full well it was broken they just were trying to cash in as much as they could.

thats shady to me.

Don't like it when indy games go down, but it wasn't very good, well in my opinion anyway. Was hoping to come back one day and have another look at it but there you go. Comiserations to the the staff and players.

Originally posted by Reizla

As expected when the game went F2P late last year. Sad to see yet an other indy MMO bite the dust...

 

Not a shame it all. They commited Corporate suicide themselves the moment they released the game in the state it was in.

It was so so obvious during the last beta week that the game was virtually unplayable and yet they released anyway and start asking money on par with AAA games, hoping to cash in quickly!!

Sorry, but the game was pretty much doomed right from that moment.

There are still Indy studios around that know how to launch a game with minimal budget. Just look at Perpetuum Online for example.

They launched small and asked "small" prices. They are still around. But more importantly. Their game was at least solid and playable.

Like so many other games that are different from the general theme-park MMOs that occupy the majority of the market, Earthrise had a great concept but fell short on implementation... Still, I hate when MMOs die - especially indy ones. Sad to see it go.

It's a shame some many on here don't seem to realise that the financial aspect of building these games has a major role to play in the release dates. Yes, it may not have been ready, but I think todays news indicates, financially they needed to get some cash coming in...

Apology accepted.

Actually the build up to the game was great and it was an amazing effort for a small studio. RIP another indie MMO.

I paid for it at release, and then again a few months later and didn't see a lot of improvement.  Yet again another game I rolled my dice on and came up on the losing end.     Don't get me wrong I love Indie game companies.  Minecraft, Terraria, Deathspank, Trine/Trine2, Orcs Must Die, Dungeon Defenders and a long list of Indie games are installed on my PC but I made a vow to myself that in 2012 I will not spend another dime on an Indie MMO.   It just isn't worth it.  Heck it isn't worth spending money on most MMOs at launch these days as you pay for the box and a few months down the road they go free to play.    That is why I am glad that my personal MMO to look forward to this year Guild Wars 2 is Buy to Play.   

Of course I bought Dawn of Fantasy which is buy to play and sucks major but at least I got it for under $8 from Impulse the other day.     Matter of fact I am starting to move to the mindset of unless it is on sale on Steam I am not going to buy it.

Writing a MMO is no easy task and for Indie game makers with little capital, almost impossible.  Shame it comes down to this.

Complaining about a buggy game from an indie developer is like kicking someone when they are down.  It is just beneath you.  These people need your support, not your whines.

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Originally posted by Ozmodan
Writing a MMO is no easy task and for Indie game makers with little capital, almost impossible.  Shame it comes down to this.
Complaining about a buggy game from an indie developer is like kicking someone when they are down.  It is just beneath you.  These people need your support, not your whines.

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Atleast they were honest about mistakes made and not blaming the "players" for not supporting it enough.

Good thing there is yet hope for sandbox: ArcheAge

I have a feeling Xyson would end up with same fate.

Originally posted by Shivam

I have a feeling Xyson would end up with same fate.

I don't think so.

Originally posted by Mithrandolir

Originally posted by Shivam

I have a feeling Xyson would end up with same fate.

I don't think so.

 

I was told the same about Earthrise few months back.

Originally posted by Shivam

Originally posted by Mithrandolir

Originally posted by Shivam

I have a feeling Xyson would end up with same fate.

I don't think so.

 

I was told the same about Earthrise few months back.

Well I am not saying it wont happen, just that I don't think so. I could see Earthrise closing all the way back when it launched though. I am active in Xsyon and I just don't see it happening is all.

Originally posted by Shivam

I have a feeling Xyson would end up with same fate.

Xsyon*

Not trying to be a grammar nazi here, but for some reason every one keeps calling it Xyson :P

so he felt the game was released too early thus failed.....maybe he should have listened to everyone who was telling him this exact thing after he announced the release date.

shame