Greg 'Ghostcrawler' Street is a prominent game designer who previously worked on World of Warcraft and the eponymous League of Legends MMO before leaving Riot Games to found his own studio, Fantastic Pixel Castle, to create an MMO for NetEase Games. The project was codenamed Ghost.
Unfortunately for Fantastic Pixel Castle, NetEase Games suddenly pulled money from each of its star-studded studios earlier this year. Worlds Untold (Mac Walters), Jar of Sparks (Jerry Hook) and T-Minus Zero (Rich Vogel) all finished without releasing a game, and now Fantastic Pixel Castle has followed suit.
Another blow to MMO fans
“Fantastic Pixel Castle is closing its doors on November 17th,” Street wrote in a LinkedIn post. “While there's still a chance we can secure funding after that date, it will depend on how much of the team remains. While we'd love to make our game, our first priority is helping developers find employment, whether at indie studio Fantastic Pixel Castle 2.0, or at many of the other fine (and hopefully stable) game and tech companies out there.”
“To the literally dozens of people who reached out to try to help us raise capital, or through introductions to people who could, you humble me. There's still a chance for one of them to work, and it really only takes one. To our supporters at NetEase, thank you for taking the chance with us. To our team, I appreciate you joining me on this journey, and let's continue to work together.”
Ghost is an MMO project with a fantastic post-apocalyptic setting. The game's primary social hub is located on a floating island, the last bastion of civilization after an apocalyptic event wiped out most of the population.
Ghost is the latest MMO to be (essentially) discontinued, following the cessation of new content updates for the New World, and the reported cancellation of an MMO in development at Amazon Games.
It's been a rough half a decade for MMO players, as no new project has managed to “stick” in the market. Dune: Awakening still has a solid player base, but fans of the genre continue to flock to old favorites like World of Warcraft, RuneScape, Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy 14.
World of Warcraft
- Released
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November 23, 2004
- ESRB
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T for Teen: Blood and Gore, Crude Humor, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, Violence (online interactions not rated)
- Engine
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Unreal engine
- Multiplayer
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Online Multiplayer
- Cross-platform play
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pc, ps
