After Letting Go Of The Team, Fractured Online Now Has New Owners Who "Saved The Game"

It's no secret that MMORPG Fractured Online has had a very rough road over the last few years. After a bizarre breakdown with their publisher gamigo, the team at Dynamight Studios had to scramble to find a way to continue development, improve half-finished systems, and get the game on the market just to keep the project alive. The initial launch didn't do as well as the team needed it to, and even a F2P conversion didn't seem to save things. As the new year arrived, the company had to release all employees and the only work being done on Fractured Online was being done by the three founders of the company, and they weren't being paid and hadn't been for a while.

If you've been watching, playing, or just looking forward to Fractured Online, you've likely been a bit nervous that the project would just simply vanish. That was a very real possibility. However, that doesn't seem to be the case just yet. After teasing an "announcement" for a while now, Jacopo finally revealed today that the game will be taken over by a company called Happy Cauldron Games. If you don't know that name, you're forgiven. They're an indie game company whose LinkedIn page is pretty sparce and only mentions an "unannounced" project (likely Fractured) and claims to sport a headcount of 2-10 employees.

Happy Cauldron Games was founded by Duncan Davis who, in addition to founding Happy Cauldron Games, works as an AI & ML Manager for Mojang. Davis is an active player and goes by the name TaNaHaRa on the Fractured Online Discord. His LinkedIn profile says the company was founded back in 2021 and they were looking to hire a community manager last month via WorkWithIndies.com, but other than that there is very little internet presence for the organization.

In a post to players and an announcement on Fractured Online's official Discord, Jacopo says this means the "game was saved." Jacopo and the other founders of Dynamight will be joining Happy Cauldron Games as employees, some past employees may return, and the game will get its own "experienced" community manager.

Jacopo ensures players that Davis did not buy the game to turn it into a "crypto scam" and instead will be focus on the game's long-term success and development. That future development will focus on improving (or in some cases finishing) systems that weren't able to be completed as things went south, a change in the game's engine to use Coherence to assist with multiplayer content development, and a focus on making a place PvP and PvE players can "call home."

Jacopo also asks for patience. Obviously this transition and development will not be quick. As for the current version of Fractured Online? Expect announcements on that front from Happy Cauldron Games soon. It seems Happy Cauldron Games will be taking over all of the game's socials soon and will be adding a Discord channel to be "transparent" about the upcoming porting process.

While I think the future is still uncertain for Fractured Online, I guess being bought by an unknown studio with initially vague plans communicated to the public is better than a full shutdown if you're a fan? Predictably, there's some confusion and consternation on the game's Discord right now with players uncertain about wipes, the future, and who will stay invloved with the game and who will not. We'll have to watch how this all plays out.