DRAGO Entertainment announces that Otherland will enter Early Access on Steam on August 26th and will be officially launched early next year. This will finally offer the chance to check out this Unreal engine MMORPG based on the works of author Tad Williams that was announced in 2008. The project has not been in development that entire time, however, as it was purchased a couple of years ago from defunct developer RealU, and DRAGO says it has been revamped along the way, even though it was never publicly vamped in the first place. In their explanation of why they are going the Early Access route, they promise this will be more polished than many such releases:

Despite being in Early Access, Otherland is one of the most advanced titles on the service, a far cry from the Pre-Alpha Versions often put up for sale. Most of the unique features – starting with the eDNA System that allows users to "collect and clone" items and even NPCs up to the Housing and PVP systems – have been fully implemented already. Other features, such as the extensive Clan Land and Clan War Features are far along in development and will be added soon. Further content updates such as new worlds filled with quests, additional battlegrounds and minigames are planned for the upcoming months; all of these features will be taking community feedback into account. Revenues derived from Early Access will flow right back into development, allowing for additional time to balance, optimize and polish the game before the intended Release in early 2016. "After two closed beta tests we decided against the traditional Open Beta phase and instead opted to go Early Access on Steam because it allows us to better involve the community in the polishing process", commented Lucjan Mikociak, CEO of DRAGO Entertainment. "We have come a long way since taking on the project nearly two years ago, and as a small independent developer we love to communicate with our community and appreciate their feedback and ideas, as we are determined to make sure that Otherland will not officially launch until it is ready."