While Star Vault has promised a stream soon to take a deep dive into the upcoming Territorial Control update on the way for Mortal Online 2, today’s stream took a very different turn.
Henrik announced Mortal Exodus, a new, but “connected” project set in space. This new project will be in Unreal Engine 5, and developed by a different team, likely a third party. Answering questions from the chat, he confirmed that this is a separate project, and while they share some components, that the core Mortal Online 2 team won’t be making this new project.
He made sure to repeat that everyone on the MO2 team is still working on Mortal Online 2, in response to some comments about finishing promised work on the game. The new project, he says, offers new opportunities and resources that will help Star Vault to grow and expand. Star Vault did receive an Epic Games Mega Grant last year and this also spawned the UE5 transition, so maybe it's related.
So what can we expect from this? Not much is yet known, but in making the announcement (which was not a late April Fools’ joke, he said), also came with a teaser that shows off some of those familiar elements. So, things are not under development just yet, and it will be a while before anything comes to fruition. Henrik said he will be talking to teams about the scope and nature of the project and hopes to start development.
All that said, reaction in the chat from the community ranged from criticism to surprise, with a lot of reactions saying to continue working on Mortal Online 2 first and possibly grow that team instead of trying to start a new project. User jman_jman_jmansaid “Mortal: Exodus because we're all leaving”, though Henrik continued to reiterate that nothing was changing with the MO2 team and this would be a project that would get started later.
It was a surprising reveal, and we’ll see just what comes of Mortal Exodus.