Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen has had seemingly a rough few weeks with its community, and a new purported leak isn't helping things.
After dealing with the reaction from fans over the new art style direction Visionary Realms is taking Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, a new letter that has been rumored to have leaked from a backer under NDA has been floating around the web for about a week or so. I first saw it pop up here on our forums yesterday, and now multiple other outlets have also confirmed they've received it (both MassivelyOP and MMOBomb have confirmed they were sent the same leaked letter).
The letter, which Visionary Realms' Ben Dean has purportedly written to Pantheon's backers if the leak bears out as true, talks about the shift to 24/7 testing, which the company first talked publicly about back in July. While that testing was presented as a way to keep those helping to test the MMO more engaged long-term, with a progression system that would help keep testers in the world while the team builds out its content, the newly leaked letter seems to shift that focus more towards monetizing the "247" testing.
The letter tells backers that the team has been "aware" of the 247's "potential to be monetized," with Visionary Realms' Ben Dean laying out the reasons why the company would even be looking at this route.
"We are in a position now where crowdfunding has slowed, and there is still a lot of worldbuilding and content to create. Continuing this trajectory is not reasonable. We could continue, and Pantheon would launch, but it would still be a long time from now. We have made huge advances in efficiency and velocity, but its projected launch is still years off at this pace. If we can monetize 247, not only can it potentially earn some revenue, but it can gain positive attention from potential partners to invest in Visionary Realms as a company so that we can launch Pantheon in a more reasonable time frame."
As a result, the letter tells backers that "promotions and online content for Pantheon as an MMO will slow," as the team refocuses on 247 itself. The letter says the Pantheon team aims to bring its MMO client back for testing early next year.
As of now, Visionary Realms has not outright said the leaked letter is real, though it also hasn't outright denied it. As spotted by MassivelyOP this morning, the game's community manager on the public Discord addressed it, saying there will be info coming out "soon."
What this means specifically is that the 247 mode could be used as a spin-off build to draw in investors and drum up new crowdfunded backers. Also, if the letter proves accurate, the fact that the MMO is still potentially years away without this infusion of capital worries me about whether it will still be relevant when it finally releases. Spinning down the testing on the MMO, which is what backers are currently paying to test now, in favor of this new initiative also poses a chance to alienate those who are most ardently looking forward to Pantheon finally releasing.
We've reached out to Visionary Realms as well to confirm the authenticity of the leaked letter and will update this story if and when we hear back.
Ta, Kyleran, achesoma, and DeepCoat on the forums.
