Money for crowdfunded MMO Pantheon runs dry

Funds for the development of subscription MMO Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen have run dry, the game’s creators have said.

The title is being developed by EverQuest designer Brad McQuaid and developer Visionary Realms. To date it has raised almost $160,000 through its website from 1,572 supporters, averaging around $100 from each backer.

But despite the crowdfunding campaign the developer has now run out of money and is hoping to secure an investor to continue development. The news comes just two months after the studio failed to raise $800,000 in a Kickstarter campaign.

As a result, development has slowed as staff can no longer be paid.

The studio has said it will continue taking donations which will go toward running its website rather than game development.

Despite the turbulent development announced on the forum, the game website’s front page still states that Pantheon is “in full-on development mode”.

“Over the first month of development through crowdfunding, we’ve been able to achieve what was needed to be done in order to gain investor interest,” read a statement.

“That is, we’ve shown there is interest in a game like Pantheon, we’ve built the term sheets and business plan, and now have a prototype we can show to potential investors.

“The downside now is that our initial resources have depleted, which regrettably means that development is going to slow down until finances can be secured. It’s not something we want to do by any means, but as we cannot guarantee paychecks to the team, they each need to be able to spend time on other things to pay the bills.

“Once we’re able to get that level of funding we can then secure much-needed studio space and be able to pick up the pace of production dramatically. We are deeply thankful to this community for getting Pantheon to this critical point, where we have been able to put together an attractive package to present to potential investors.

"In the interim, any donations made at this point until further notice will be going directly to maintaining the website during this phase, and not towards development.”