[2019] The End of Worlds Adrift

https://youtu.be/yjTUf9VT4q8

At Bossa Studios we love taking risks and making stuff that no one dares to do in order to create great original experiences for players. Worlds Adrift was an ambitious undertaking for us: a community crafted MMO built on freedom and player agency with multiplayer physics, set in a huge world. We are proud of what we achieved with the game since development began five years ago out of a humble game jam.

We are immensely grateful for every Traveller that’s come to experience this community crafted world. However, Worlds Adrift just hasn’t reached the level of popularity it needs to continue. The challenges that came with our ambitious project meant that all our work went into making the game work rather than making it the experience we wanted it to be. As a result we failed at making a game that could capture the imaginations of millions. Creating an MMO like Worlds Adrift is a huge financial commitment and unfortunately the game is just no longer commercially viable.

What does the end of Worlds Adrift mean for its community?

Bossa Studios will be continuing as a developer and publisher of games, but Worlds Adrift is coming to a close. To provide a special experience in the game’s final months, all the cosmetic items in the in-game shop will be given out to every player. Additionally, Worlds Adrift Founder Captains will receive a free copy of Surgeon Simulator and I Am Bread as a thanks for joining this journey, and to give a glimpse into the kinds of experiences we’re looking to create going forward. Founder Captains’ names will also be immortalised on the game’s website, which will remain live as a tribute to the world we’ve built together.

Worlds Adrift will not be sailing quietly into the night. We will host an End of the World event which will be live streamed on Twitch and will feature an AMA with the team. The exact date and details of this event will be announced here and on our other community channels (Twitter, Facebook, Steam Forum and Discord) soon.

We know you’ll have questions, so please take a look at our extensive Q&A below. If you can’t find the answer to your question there, then please contact us[support.bossastudios.com].

We’ve really appreciated all your feedback on Worlds Adrift throughout development and we’d love your ongoing support with our unannounced titles. Our Bossa Studios Creator Club[www.bossastudios.com] is a group where like-minded and also not-so-like-minded individuals help us make the very best games we can, through surveys, playtests and more. Anyone can join the Creator Club and you can find more details on how to do so here[www.bossastudios.com].

Thank you all for joining us on this incredible journey,

The Worlds Adrift Team.

Transcript (by Youtube)

3s	hi I'm in really fierce gaming chief at
6s	Bossa studios and I'm William Steele a
8s	designer for the drift it has been quite
10s	a long time since Christmas 2014 when we
13s	first put out a video talking about our
15s	idea of building a massive multiplayer
16s	game that would become world adrift
19s	what started as a game jam took a life
21s	of its own and soon enough
22s	we decided to embark on the dream of
24s	building the most advanced and complex
26s	hopefully fun sandbox game which player
28s	that has ever been created and indeed
31s	took us a few years but we succeeded at
33s	launching what most people said could
34s	never be done at all
35s	well the drift is the the first game to
37s	do a lot of awesome things such as
39s	having the entire world and all its
40s	Islands made by the players by using the
42s	island creator before the game has even
44s	launched is the first massively
46s	multiplayer game too heavily future
47s	physics and have all of its gameplay and
49s	design features kind of revolve around
51s	that so your entire ship is uniquely
54s	built by you and that flying and
56s	fighting completely unique to how you
57s	build it we are hugely proud of what we
59s	achieved and have fond memories of every
62s	game session we shared with the players
63s	a lot of love went into making was the
65s	drift and a lot more was poured in by
67s	the players through their creations and
69s	their adventures in the sky as a
70s	foundation unfortunately every journey
72s	has an end and this one ends you alone
75s	would wish once we love the game we
76s	build together the reality that it has
78s	failed to capture the imagination of
80s	enough people to make it commercially
82s	viable since we first opened the game we
85s	updated it around 30 times trying to get
87s	it right fixing tons of bugs issues
89s	expended the game content still we fell
93s	way short of what the game original
95s	vision was what we have live today is
97s	probably perhaps 20% of the game that we
99s	wanted to launch and it shows yeah I'm
103s	missing you know a lot of future stuff
106s	like all the creatures when we sing like
108s	access to the law objectives to pursue
111s	in the world there are no gigantic sky
113s	whales to battle there's no turkey
115s	control defend no puzzle features in the
118s	islands to kind of you know fight your
119s	way through temples the technical
121s	challenges of the game became so big
123s	they were to focus all our efforts into
125s	making it just work rather than making
126s	it's good to play as it needs to be this
129s	is not what we originally planned and as
131s	a result we failed at creating again
132s	millions would play without a strong
135s	number of
136s	it means that the game does not pay for
137s	itself and we can no longer keep it
140s	going we have now created the plan to
142s	sunset the game at the end of july 2019
145s	we know that the end of worlds drift
147s	will be as disappointing to many people
149s	as it is especially for us we have put
152s	years into its making and it's one of
155s	the hardest decisions we ever had to
156s	make as game developers we know this
159s	will have a severe impact in the
160s	community and we are committed to do
162s	everything we can to make it right by
164s	the players for instance all the
166s	founders we receive three copies of our
168s	other games like surgeon simulator and I
170s	am bread the names would be immortalized
172s	in the games website which will keep
174s	live as a homage to the world that we
176s	have built together and we also agreed
177s	with Steam to refund any purchase made
180s	in the past month regardless of playtime
182s	and lastly any extra item bought from
185s	the worlds adrift store at any time will
187s	also be fully refunded that said was
191s	riffle not sale qalam tonight will host
194s	an end of the world event that will be
195s	live streamed on Twitch followed by an
197s	AMA on reddit with the team
199s	hopefully we'll build a few more
200s	memories together to remember wars
202s	adrift fondly as a wonderful game that
204s	stays so many great memories for so many
205s	of us you know while if you have any
208s	questions please let us know through the
209s	support channels we are live there to
211s	help you and discuss any details that we
213s	might have missed and surely we miss it
215s	something lastly we would like to thank
218s	every player who joined us in this
219s	adventure we will never forget how much
221s	love and care the world rift community
223s	has put into this game we could not have
226s	asked for a better group of people to
228s	gather around something that we made and
230s	for that we'll be forever grateful to
232s	you
234s	[Music]
237s	you

Transcript (by Youtube)

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