The mysterious folks behind the re-launch of
Ryzom have finally provided a few scant details on what they are up to in
reviving this science-fiction MMORPG that has launched and closed a couple of
times already.
This
forum post from yesterday, which they point out was the game's fourth
birthday (
story), describes their immediate goals as making the
game profitable and getting their programmers up to speed on the game code. As
for that profitability, they do not outline their business model, but indicate
the game's free status is not permanent by promising Ryzom "will stay free for
everyone *at least* until the end of October, and possibly longer." Meanwhile,
their longer-term plan is simply to make a plan: "Every day we are thinking
about where we want to go and what we want to achieve for you. But we don't want
to make the mistake of planning bad decisions because we hadn't prepared enough
or we rushed into these decisions too quickly; we want to prepare ourselves as
best as possible before giving you any straight answers. Don't forget that an
MMORPG is an extremely complex living thing, especially Ryzom."