City State Entertainment Explains Lack Of Marketing For Final Stand: Ragnarok

final stand ragnarok character banner

It’s hasn’t been a week since Final Stand: Ragnarok launched into Early Access on Steam but it looks like the game is already struggling to catch the gaming community’s attention. SteamDB data shows an all-time peak of 19 players on launch day followed by a drastic decline to a 24-hour peak of just 3 players as of this writing.

City State Entertainment Co-founder and Lead Designer Mark Jacobs, however, isn’t the least bit concerned and defended the apparent lack of marketing for the game’s launch.

“[. . ] [We] are using Early Access to get player feedback, iterate on the game, and make sure it is great shape before we spend any money on marketing,” Jacobs wrote on Ragnarok’s Steam Community page. “Early Access used to be the equivalent of Kickstarter for games and that's how we are treating it. We've been clear in our announcement, text and video that this is a truly Early Access game. That's a more honest approach than spending a lot of money on marketing to get people in to pay a game (including using non-game footage) and when they get here, what they saw from our marketing wasn't what they get.”

Jacobs explained that they did the exact opposite of what most game developers do and told players exactly what they’re getting, that they didn’t spend money on marketing, and that they only used actual in-game footage for their trailer. He also pointed out that if players aren’t satisfied with what they bought or feel that they were deceived in any way, then they can easily request a refund through Steam.

“If we get surprised and suddenly a whole lot of people are playing this game next week, great, that would be wonderful, but the fact is that we are not trying to make that happen today, tomorrow or next week,” he added. “[. . .] If you're unhappy/disappointed, refunding on Steam is quick and easy. But if you stick around, in the next few months you will see other examples of what our engine can do, just as we're doing with CU.”

On the subject of Camelot Unchained, the controversial fantasy MMORPG is still in development and currently in its Beta 1 phase eight years after it raised over $2.2 million on Kickstarter in 2013. The game’s latest newsletter offers fans a peak at what the devs have been up to this week, which includes the Alchemy system, new tundra environments, and some concept art.

Final Stand: Ragnarök Early Access Trailer