Fractured Online's New Owners Begin Revealing Plans For The MMO's Future Content, Monetization, And Founder's Packs

Two weeks ago, I reported on the news that Fractured Online now had a new owner in Happy Caludron Games. This new owner, according to the MMORPG's current owners at the time, "saved" the game by swooping in and making the purchase. While you may never have heard of Happy Cauldron Games, the MMO's players were somewhat familiar with TaNaHaRa, the head of the studio. After all, TaNaHaRa was already quite active in the game and its Discord.

While the initial announcement really just welcomed the new owners, confirmed the 3 remaining employees (the founders) of Dynamight would be working at Happy Cauldron, and made cheeky references to the purchase having nothing to do with turning the game into a crypto title, details were sparce but coming soon.

That time is now.

While TaNaHaRa has held a number of smaller Q&A videos on the Discord, a new, longer-form Q&A video focuses on the "state of the studio". You'll have to join the Discord to actually see the videos I'm linking below, though. Hopefully they'll be published somewhere for a broader community soon.

Monetization and cosmetics are a big topic, especially when it comes to crowdfunding rewards, founder's pack items, and things players may already own. While the details aren't quite fully worked out yet, the new owners are aiming to let players retain anything they have now, provided it fits with the design changes coming. Basically, if your asset still works with future changes, you can keep it. If not, you'll likely get something else in its place. Founder's Packs and crowdfunding packages are getting the same "review" to ensure all rewards fit with the future direction of the MMO. These could be modified and maybe even added to in the future, but that's not locked in quite yet. Other monetization questions, like future VIP time, refunds, or cosmetic sales, are still being decided, but TaNaHaRa really seems focused on doing everything they can to keep (and gain) player trust. Not having any of that initial support money left is a challenge, though.

Another video, which is planned as a weekly occurrence going forward, provides an update on the studio itself monthly, the transition of Fractured to the studio, and some changes coming to how the team communicates to players. Expect more videos each week in a Q&A fashion or specific weekly videos looking at various design topics. Some of these topics could include potential changes to the MMO's combat, PvP, hell, even movement. It should be an interesting ride.

As someone just tangentially interested in Fractured, I actually think the videos come off as rather sincere and informative. When anyone in charge of a game says, "We don't know yet" it just sparks an honestly trigger in me that makes me eager to see what they have to say next and I take what they say a little more seriously.

That said, Fractured is about to embark on a very long road...and it's already been on quite a long one in the past...so we'll see if it all works out for fans.