Status Checking Some "Upcoming" MMORPGs That Have Gone A Bit Silent Lately

It's time to check in on a few MMORPG projects that have been making the news rounds for a while, but seem to have gone eerily silent in recent times. I mean, some of these haven't had any updated news in months or even years. Developing MMOs takes time, of course, and that time will certainly include periods of silence. However, some of the games listed below had not only revealed F2P or subscription payment models, but some had even announced release windows that have come and gone.

Some of these may be totally dead projects and some may yet still see the light of day, but here's where they sit as of right now. I won't be bringing up games like the Riot MMO or Ghostcrawler's "Ghost" here. First, those games still do have some activity from the teams with the community. Sure, the "news" portion may be light, but they are still active. Second, we learned about those games so early in the development process that a lot of news isn't expected yet. I'm talking about games that seemed to be nearing a release or had started their own hype trains or even beta tests but then seemed to go dark.

In no particular order:

Perfect New World

Some gamers may forget just how big Perfect World International was back in the day. Hell, it was the game featured in the very first piece of video content I ever produced for a gaming site. Yes, watching that First Look video back now I do cringe a bit, but hey, we all have to start somewhere. Its dark cousin, Forsaken World, was a tad smaller, but it was my personal favorite of the two games.

Those games, and a few others, made Perfect World a giant in the F2P MMORPG space for years to come. While that power has dwindled/shut down/been sold over the years, it was nice to see the company doing something with the IP a few years ago. Back in 2021, we reported on new announcements for “Perfect New World.” While the name was certainly a poor one given that not only was there “Perfect World” out there, but Amazon Games’ “New World” MMO was now a thing, we were curious.

Poor name aside, Perfect New World wasn’t going to be a remake, but it certainly was capitalizing on the classic MMO IP of yesteryear. The game billed itself as an “Action” MMO and touted the ability to master all class skills and tame creatures while clearing PvP and PvE content.

Tests came in late 2023 and the game starting hinting at a late 2024 release window. Those tests, however, weren’t all that well received. Since then, the game’s Steam page hasn’t received any news, the official site has no new updates since the recap of the November 2023 test, the Facebook page hasn’t been updated since February 2024, and the last video on the game’s YouTube page was posted over a year and a half ago.

Now, Perfect World as a company didn’t have a great 2024. After a dip in profits by 64%, the company laid off a ton of staff and cancelled multiple projects. Reports on Perfect New World, at that time, varied. Some announcements said the MMO was still in development, while other unofficial posts said the game was cancelled.

Strangely, the game’s Steam page has received an update as recently as last month. It wasn’t a really meaningful update, but someone’s still working on it somewhere, I guess.

Chrono Odyssey

Chrono Odyssey from Kakao Games is a bit of an odd one. Technically, this MMORPG still has a fairly active (if not-really-information-filled) X (formerly Twitter) and has posted an "update” on their website as recently as this month. Why do I include it here then? Because the “update” really just recaps a few basic things from a February test and, although the post sports the title “What we’ve been up to,” it really doesn’t cover anything besides stating that the team is working on improving every aspect of the game and should be able “present Chrono Odyssey” soon.

You may say “fine” to all of that, but Chrono Odyssey was revealed to us way back in 2020 with the shiny trailer shown above. That trailer will celebrate its 5th birthday later this year. It's fair to think that this may just be a case of the game being announced far earlier than it should have been, but almost 5 years is a long time. Since then, Chrono Odyssey has talked monetization and Steam wishlisting over a year ago, and has stayed far away from even hinting at a potential release date.

While we likely won't cover the game much unless it rolls its "box fee" decision back at some point and goes F2P, it's still one that continues to make "upcoming MMO" lists over and over again, including ours.

From the beginning, info has been sparce and it continues to be that way, but it is a bit more active than other games in this list, so it's one I hold out a bit more hope for going forward. I THINK we'll see it someday...but when? I have no clue.

ArcheAge Chronicles

ArcheAge Chronicles is another weird one. We've "technically" known about this one being in development since 2020 when it was announced as ArcheAge 2. In 2022, series creator and then XLGames CEO Jake Song said the MMO was coming "relatively soon." He also pointed out that the follow-up to the original sandbox MMORPG ArcheAge had "high expectations."

Since then? Oof.

Jake Song stepped down as CEO to focus on the game, then later just left the company entirely to partner up with a gaming blockchain endeavor. In between those events, ArcheAge 2 was delayed, then revealed at a Sony State of Play to be "ArcheAge Chronicles." The newly renamed game was moving away from the original's PvP focus and sliding more towards the PvE experience. It would also come to consoles. They called it the "next evolution" of MMORPGs.

In the last six months, however? Not a peep on the game's YouTube channel or website, and their X account really just keeps showing off asset art. While the show last year claimed it was releasing in 2025, there still isn't any news on this one when it comes to actual release windows, even on the game's Steam page.

All of this says nothing about the company's own NFT endeavor, ArcheWorld. It's also weird that this is the second game that Kakao is involved with (they're the currently-listed publisher) that we just don't get news on.

Ashfall

Initially revealed in September of 2022, Ashfall was shown to be a post-apocalyptic shooter MMORPG being developed by Legendary Star Studio. Monsters from Chinese folklore, a ruined environment, basically it wanted to be a Fallout-like MMO. It was slated as being F2P and it would include a mobile release. That initial IGN reveal didn't go over well. It looked sloppy, people were screaming that it looked like a mobile game, and even the damage number fonts became a huge topic surrounding the game.

The shooter started holding closed betas in July of 2023, but announced that launch would be delayed until the summer of 2024 at the same time. While the team did recap that test and promise another test in December of 2023/January of 2024, that test never materialized.

That was literally the last we heard from the team. YouTube has no new videos since October of 2023 (and even that was just a single music track), the site and X account share similar "last updated" dates, and even the team's TapTap update board hasn't seen a post since late 2023. While there's nothing official I can find out there, this is the one on this list that I would consider the most "dead" out of all of these projects. I think if it were still a thing, we would have heard SOMETHING by now.

The Lord of the Rings (Amazon Games)

Ok, this one might be SLIGHTLY unfair to put here given that when Amazon Games announced its second attempt at a Lord of the Rings MMO in May 2023, they did point out that it was at the very start of things. This was after their first attempt at an MMO in the IP was blown out of the water when Tencent (who owns Leyou) and Amazon couldn't agree on things.

However, when your CEO wants it to be the "biggest MMO out there" and then tells IGN a year later (in August of 2024) that it's "still early" to talk about the project, that raises an eyebrow. Add to that that it's now been and additional 7 months of silence since then and we're closing in on two years of no news. That said, if you want to mentally strike this from the list and put it into the same bucket as Ghost or the Riot MMO (which I excluded in my intro), I wouldn't blame you. It's just too big a deal to not have ANY news in 2 years in my book...maybe we'll call this one an honorable mention, then.

If you've heard anything about these games that I may have missed, toss me an update in the comments below. I'm sure there may be bits and bobs of news on sites in other countries that maybe I just haven't seen yet. Fingers crossed we see some of these projects come to fruition. Is there another MMO that's gone silent that would make your list?