Wild West Online is an open world MMORPG set in the old American West. The game will feature action oriented combat and open PvP gameplay fitting its violent setting. Explore, prospect, barter, and settle the Wild West as never before!
Publisher: 612 Games Type: Sandbox MMORPG Release Date: May 10, 2018 Shut Down Date: October 25, 2018 Pros: +Western setting. +Action combat. +Open PvP. +World exploration & resource gathering. Cons: -Limited information available.
Following last week's leak, during which many mistook it for Read Dead Redemption 2, Wild West Online generated quite a bit of buzz. It generated so much buzz, in fact, that developer 612 Games will no longer need to run the Kickstarter that was planned for this month, as the game's original investors have given the company enough funding to launch the game in full later this year with a buy-to-play business model.
But what exactly does that mean for Wild West Online, you ask? You may recall that the stretch goals that the company had planned for playable female characters and train robberies were fairly high compared to the planned initial goal of $250,000. It is noted that the game will be launching with female characters, "rich role-playing and social activities such as card games," and at least one localization. While there will be no PvP combat, according to PCGamer's interview DJ2 Entertainment last week, the press release also notes that there will be "PvE game missions" and treasure hunts, in addition to other content.
In addition to skipping the Kickstarter campaign, 612 Games will also be skipping Early Access. An Alpha and Closed Beta will take place this summer in lieu of an Early Access release.
612 Games Chief Creative Officer Stephan Bugaj had the following to say about the announcement.
The community’s response to Wild West Online is something we never imagined and thanks to it we’re able to fully develop a robust Western experience for PC. We’ve been fortunate enough to have our initial investors step up and provide additional funding to make the game we wanted, without having to raise money via crowdfunding. Westerns are lacking on PC so we can’t wait to release the game to the public.
For more information about Wild West Online, or to sign up for the upcoming Alpha and Closed Beta tests, head to the official website.
If you go to the official FAQ on Wild West Online's official website right now, the following vague statement is given in regards to to game's choice of engine.
We are using a proprietary licensed engine, designed and developed specifically for open world online games, and we'll cover our technology in more details in the coming months. The engine rendering is DirectX 11 based.
In a now-deleted Reddit post, a user named TheSkiesAreShattered seems to have claimed to know which engine they used. Spoilers, it's the same engine that Free Reign Entertainment used for its games Last Man Standing, Romero's Aftermath, Shattered Skies, the last of which the user's username clearly references.
Given the history of Free Reign Entertainment, its name is regarded somewhat like Voldemort's. The moment you mention it, the pitchforks come out. So if the engine weren't enough to cause baseless concern, as it's only an engine, TheSkiesAreShattered seems to have gone a step further and alleged that the use of Free Reign's engine clearly meant that Sergey Titov and/or Free Reign had funded the game. You may remember that Wild West Online's developers were recently given enough funding that they could skip Kickstarter altogether and this claim appears to be related to that announcement.
Now, the exact nature of this post are conjecture, given that the post has been deleted—along with the user's account itself—and I can't seem to find an archive of it, but the conclusions drawn are what I've pieced together from what's left.
A video by YouTuber BigfryTV remains, however, and he offers some evidence that he believes could support the theory that Free Reign is involved somehow. All of this seems very circumstantial, but what he dug up is as follows.
The Wild West Online forum looks a lot like the Shattered Skies forum.
Stephan Bugaj and Sergey Titov are Facebook friends.
DJ2 Entertainment, Wild West Online's publisher, worked on Romero's Aftermath and Hawken. The latter is said to be significant because some of Hawken's developers went on to work on the Free Reign-published FPS Burstfire.
Burstfire also used Free Reign's engine, known as the Nightshade Engine, and it ended up being published by Free Reign.
In response to all of these claims, one of Wild West Online's developers posted the following message on the game's official forums.
This one is simple. DJ2 have licensed engine from Free Reign Entertainment, as it was only engine available for licensing that was built from the ground and suitable to run online open world game and one that allowed us to achieve what we already achieved in a short time.
Since this topic generated so much interest we will release more detailed response later today.
But please do not trust anything you read on reddit
Given the history of Free Reign's games and their buggy nature, many were skeptical. The same moderator followed up with another statement that directly denies Sergey Titov's involvement in development, instead saying that 612 Games is simply using their engine. The statement is as follows.
1. MMO Engine is more than just a fancy rendering. It's about databases, backend scripts, etc. We've evaluated Unreal and it turned out we will need to spend over a year adding those features, while Free Reign offered it out of the box.
2. And response NO, Sergey Titov is not involved in development of the game, but yes we use game engine developed and supported by one of his companies. And this is why we believe that more detailed response in in order to provide full transparency.
A more thorough statement on the matter is said to be on the way later today, so we'll have to wait until then to see what the connection is, but I don't believe at this time that there really is a deeper connection. If all you can find is that the two guys are Facebook friends or that the forums look similar, which could simply be because they use similar software or even, in a reverse twist, could be because part of DJ2's work on Romero's Aftermath involved setting up the forum, which Free Reign then adapted for Shattered Skies' website, I'm quite a bit far from inclined to believe that what you're trying to say is happening is actually happening.
For now, all we can do is wait for an official statement.
With how many fantasy MMORPGs are out there, it baffles me that we've never received a proper Wild West-themed MMORPG. I remember that, for some time, we pinned our hopes on Frontier 1859 back in the day, but it never panned out. Fortunately, we have a new Wild West-themed MMORPG to pin our hopes on.
Two days ago, an image of what appeared to be Red Dead Redemption 2 was leaked onto the internet. Gamers everywhere assumed that it was, in fact, Red Dead Redemption 2. It was not. It was actually an image of an unannounced open-world PvP MMORPG set in the Wild West, which is aptly named "Wild West Online."
Shortly after the image was leaked, PCGamer sat down with publisher DJ2's Creative Vice President, Steven Bugaj, to discuss the game with him. It turns out that Wild West Online is very intentionally similar to Red Dead Redemption and it is even boasted that the developers took inspiration from the first game's online multiplayer mode. The game won't feature questing, grinding, or levels; instead, it will be a seamless open world, which uses "server shards" that each hold several hundred players. The game will feature a story and "gameplay-driven motives to keep playing," but the team hasn't entirely decided what kind of progression system the game will utilize.
Players will also be able to take on any of a wide variety of roles in Wild West Online's rendition of the Wild West. In addition to simply being a bandit or a cowboy, players will have the option of taking on gathering roles like farmer and gold prospector.
Other gameplay elements will include building camps, a crafting system that requires players to find and learn recipes, and thieving. Combat is intended to only take place against other players, meaning that no NPCs will come after you if you break the law. It's up to players to take you down.
A Kickstarter is planned for later this month with a $250,000 goal. A $400,000 stretch goal will introduce women as playable characters, whereas, at $1.75 million raised, developer 612 Games will introduce train robberies in a post-launch "season one" update.
No footage is available at this time, but you can find more screenshots on the official website. More information is set to be revealed on May 26th.
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