After announcing they were pulling the maligned 247 extraction mode, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen's developers held a Discord Q&A discussing the reversal, as well as answering questions from the community.
Pantheon's team has had a tumultuous few weeks ever since word came down that Visionary Realms was working on an extraction mode as a way to speed up development on the MMO potentially and, if it was good enough, bring in more investment by monetizing it. However, after a few weeks of pushback from the community, Visionary Realms is changing course, reverting back to development on the MMO proper and canning the 247 extraction mode.
Last night's Discord Q&A addressed this change in course, with creative director Chris "Joppa" Perkins starting out of the gate stressing that the studio was in fact not out of money. Rather this was always, from VR's perspective, meant to bring in more investment and accelerate development on Pantheon proper.
ICYMI: During our Q&A yesterday, we discussed #PantheonMMO's return to its #MMORPG format. We also talk about funding, resources, what will happen with the extraction mode, and of course, bringing in Alpha pledgers! Listen to the full session here: https://t.co/ywl2N5KpVn… pic.twitter.com/2pcsziY36T
— Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen (@PantheonMMO) November 17, 2023
Joppa reminds listeners that while the extraction mode was being looked at as a potential way to monetize development, it wasn't the only way. He floats the idea early on in the discussion about selling an Early Access-style subscription when the MMO is far enough along in development to warrant that, but stresses that any monetization avenues are not finalized.
"It's the kind of thing we need to do very carefully and thoughtfully," Joppa says.
Pantheon's devs are bringing the MMO back online for development for 24 hours starting on November 18th, giving pre-alpha backers a chance to play the MMO they are helping to fund again. They will also be utilizing focus groups in testing as well a bit more, with one example Joppa gave happening just this past weekend, where selected testers could try out a raid. The focus group testing brought in some valuable data for the team, Perkins said, and it seems like this will be something they will be doing more.
The Q&A is pretty wide-ranging, especially now that the focus of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is squarely back on the MMO itself. The Visionary Realms team touches on character wipes and how they will manage them during testing, as well as even answering how the Pantheon team aims to avoid spoilers that stem from testing as launch draws near (they will be holding stuff back to avoid this, simply put).
You can check out the full Q&A in the embed below.
