Throne War PvP MMO Crowfall Is Now Owned By Austin-Based Studio Monumental *Updated*

It’s been rough going for Crowfall since the Kickstarted Throne War Simulator officially launch back in July. Launch day itself was plagued by various login issues that was further compounded by multiple DDOS attacks. A few months later, developer ArtCraft Entertainment unceremoniously laid off several members of the dev team because, as one of the devs put it, marketing had fallen flat.

Since then, Crowfall has essentially been in maintenance mode, but it looks like the game will be getting another chance as Monumental swoops in to save the day. The Austin-based studio has acquired the Crowfall IP and will be working with ArtCraft to ensure continuity and help the studio realize their vision for the game. ArtCraft itself doesn’t seem to have been bought out and will continue to remain an independent studio.

As of today, service has officially transferred to Monumental without a second of down time.

“Our team is excited to join Monumental as they share our passion for Crowfall and commitment to its future,” said ArtCraft President and Executive Producer Gordon Walton. “Monumental sees this as more than a unique and compelling game; it’s an online platform designed around player interaction and a perfect platform for experimentation. Monumental is committing the resources to help Crowfall reach its full potential. I'm personally and professionally excited to be joining the Monumental team as part of this transition.”

“As an early backer and avid player through its development, I could not be more pleased to welcome Crowfall to the Monumental family,” said Monumental CEO Monty Kerr. “Gordon brings an extraordinary team of talented and creative developers, as well as decades of experience building and operating MMOs. As a combined team, we are well positioned to fully realize Crowfall’s lofty ambitions.”

It’s worth noting that Monumental also acquired another dying game from Rhino Games just two months ago, an online multi-platform CCG called Mythgard. Like Crowfall, Mythgard’s developer was also struggling to keep the game afloat and jumped on the chance to resurrect the game with Monumental’s help.

Update:

ArtCraft Entertainment founder J. Todd Coleman offers some insight into the events that led to Crowfall’s sale and the studio’s plans for the future in a new dev blog. Kerr had apparently contacted Coleman after the game’s launch to offer suggestions on what the studio could have done better. Lack of resources, however, prevented the team from implementing any changes which is when Kerr made the offer to buy the game and the studio’s board of directors accepted.

“As you know, Crowfall launched in July. Launch numbers seemed great! August numbers were… good. Not great, but not bad – enough to sustain the game’s ongoing operations. But the numbers were falling,” Coleman recounted. “By the time September hit, the numbers had fallen dramatically. Big competitors, lack of advertising funds, lots of market fatigue, and of course too much work to fix or improve the game and not enough people to do it.”

Following the sale, half of the ArtCraft team will remain working on Crowfall together with Monumental while the other half will be focusing on a new game. Coleman was quick to assure that the new game is being developed using separate funding.

“The company that was ArtCraft is being split down the middle,” explained Coleman. Gordon and Blair and the Crowfall team will be joining Monumental. Josef and I will be working on a new game (that we started with completely separate funding, by the way) and keeping the newer folks who were hired for that project.”