Untamed Isles, a Kickstarter Funded Pokemon-esque Blockchain MMORPG, Goes into 'Hiatus'

Untamed Isles, a blockchain crypto MMORPG that raised NZ$ 840,994 (~$525,000) on Kickstarter, announced that the game is on "hiatus" after funds ran out. This bit of news arrives as the game was scheduled to begin early access on Steam on October 6th. That is no longer happening. Refunds are also not happening.

While the developer's behind Untamed Isles didn't specify exactly what happened to their funds, the crypto crash is cited as the reason for the game going on hiatus. The most likely explanation is that at some of their funds were used to speculate on crypto and those bets (gambles) did not pay off. It's totally wild to see Kickstarter funds used to gamble on crypto when the intended purpose of the Kickstarter campaign was to fund the development of an MMO.

We leaned into the crypto market and expanded rapidly off the back of the positive interest. When the crash came, we ended up heavily exposed with too short of a runway. The game remains game-first, crypto-second in design, but crypto funds have become, and remain, essential in getting us to the release. Unlike many of the projects that have foundered in the storm, we actually have a great game design that could stand on its own two feet. But until the crypto situation is resolved - and we're confident it will be at some stage - then we have to hibernate development on this project.

While I remain skeptical of every single Kickstarter MMORPG, Untamed Isles seems to have had more to show than most other MMOs, but it still couldn't make it over the finish line. Apparently Untamed Isles had over 70 staff members working on the game for over 2 years.

Untamed Isles is a very ambitious title being an open-world monster-catching MMORPG. To work on this project we brought more than 70 staff members on board and we were working relentlessly for more than 2 years to build the game we all were dreaming about. The truth is that the cost of development is high and there were lots of bumps on our way to this moment. Since we started the journey in 2020, the economic landscape has changed dramatically both generally and specifically for cryptocurrency, and we are not confident in the current market. We ran out of financial resources and we can’t carry on the development at this moment.

The official website for Untamed Isles has an FAQ regarding the game's hiatus announcement, but there's not much information on there. For all intents and purposes, Untamed Isles is dead.

What if I backed on Kickstarter/Backerkit?

Due to our cash reserves being empty, we are not in a position to refund our initial backers. We are truly sorry about this and wish this scenario was different.