Earlier this week we heard the unusual news that player-versus-player MMO Crowfall, which launched in the summer of 2021, will be taken offline and taken back to the drawing board, where it will be rethought. There's no word on how long this will take, only that "nothing is off the table" in terms of what potentially may change.
Game operator Monumental said this was because it didn't have the headspace or resources to rethink the game while it was running it, and suggested Crowfall could return looking quite different indeed. If, that is, it returns. Crowfall has struggled since launch, and it was sold to Monumental in December 2021 partly because of this - because it needed significant change.
I cannot ever remember an MMO ever doing something similar. In this article, I talk to Monumental about the decision and what it could mean. But first, a bit of background.