World of Titans plans ‘major facelift,’ November 2023 release, and closed testing soon (original) (raw)
World of Titans, aka TitanReach (or Titan Reach depending on the chronology), has had one extremely weird and eyebrow-raising journey in case that opening sentence didn’t already clue you in. It’s also been a while, however, so allow us a few moments to recap.
The original TitanReach project from developer Square Root Studios was facing fiscal problems from the very jump, with a doomed Kickstarter, a naked plea for funding, and an early access launch that apparently didn’t stop the studio from eating through its money enough that development was suspended. After that, the story only got stranger, as an angel investor reportedly dashed in to save the game but it still saw development halted again, with accusations flying of Square Root’s lead dev misappropriating the funds.
Then the game resurfaced under ownership of a new company called Archage Studios along with a renaming to Titan Reach, but that new studio came with its own set of baggage such as claims that the original MMO’s copyright was stolen from Square Root – claims that Archage tried to rebut.
After that point things got comparatively pedestrian while still arguably having the scent of grift: The game got another renaming to World of Titans, it opened a Steam demo that it shortly pulled offline, and its attempt at its own Kickstarter bellyflopped. The final piece of news out of the MMO was in the beginning of April as Archage promised “something huge.”
This brings us to current events and the aforementioned “huge” reveal from WOT made in mid-April, which is a full-scale overhaul to its gameplay and a release window of sometime in November 2023. The announcement dives into multiple features like PvP dueling and GvG warfare, a primary focus on various expected PvE activities, three different factions, five different classes, and endgame content in the form of raids and legendary quest lines, all of which was spurred by player reactions to the aforementioned demo.
Archage then fell silent between April and July, when it popped back up again with an updated logo and the promise of closed testing sometime soon for backers and lucky selected names, though timing and scale for this testing round isn’t elaborated on. The most recent update has since only come at the end of July, as a dev blog offered a rundown of its new Gal’Tal Mountains tutorial zone.
• Titan Reach changes its name, rebuts claims of copyright stealing, opens Kickstarter and Steam demo
• Just months after supposed angel investment, indie MMO TitanReach has ceased development – again
• TitanReach turns off its servers to enter a multi-month ‘private development’ cycle
• TitanReach plans its comeback after suddenly receiving full funding from a mysterious benefactor
• Indie MMO TitanReach has apparently suspended development as ‘funds have dried up’
• Indie MMO TitanReach’s free-to-play access is live — for a limited time
• TitanReach has officially kicked off early access
• TitanReach addresses early access funding – and how it pays its staff
• Indie MMO TitanReach needs funding soon or ‘it’s all over’
• TitanReach devs admit their Kickstarter is doomed, plan Indiegogo instead