Crowdfunded MMO Pantheon runs out of cash

The new MMO from EverQuest and Vanguard designer Brad McQuaid has run out of money, forcing studio Visionary Realms to slow” development.

Pantheon failed in its Kickstarter bid earlier this year, raising just $460,657 of its $800,000 goal. Its developers however began an independent crowdfunding drive via its own website, raising nearly $160k in the process.

However, just two months later this cash has already run dry.

In the past few months we have seen some of the most passion bubble up from the internet than we have in some time; all for an idea of a game we all want to see happen. It has been an exciting time for all of us,” the studio wrote.

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. 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.”

Last month successfully Kickstarted game Super Action Squad was put on hold” after its funds were depleted, with creator Jay Pavlina admitting that he had no way of repaying backers.