Yesterday the developers of upcoming RTS A Year of Rain, which launched on to Early Access last month, have announced that the game isn't quite selling at the level they hoped and that they are going to have to revise their plans for it if they want to keep development up.
The statement, which was posted on Discord, is as follows:
Greetings @everyone,
Almost a month has passed since we have released A Year Of Rain to all of you. Our goal from the start was to show our own individual passion and love for the RTS genre and simultaneously gain new experiences in the world of competitive titles. Over the course of this period we have received a lot of feedback - both positive and negative, but almost always constructive. As you have communicated frequently, there are plenty of problems with the current state of the game - some of which we seriously underestimated. We’re deeply sorry for everyone who felt, or will feel, let down by us - but unfortunately, there are no simple or quick solutions for a lot of these issues, considering we’re an independent studio with limited resources.
As we witnessed the fading momentum of the game in terms of both sales and active players, we had to face the harsh fact that we can’t maintain the ambitious course we’ve set for our A Year Of Rain. If you have played recently, you’ve probably experienced the lack of a solid player base first hand. Even when the last years in the industry have shown, that some fortunate titles were able to make a comeback after a rough release, we don’t see this happening here. Our baseline situation already defies this kind of optimism, if we just look at the numbers - and we don’t see a way to fix this in any sustainable way if we stick to our original plan.
A change of direction is imminent and sadly unavoidable at this point. Please give us some time to find a path that is sustainable for us, but most importantly a fair solution for you, the players.
We want to be as transparent as possible in this process, but we hope you understand that we first need clarity for ourselves before sharing such important decisions publically. We will get back to you with a detailed plan within the next 1 to 2 weeks. Until then, we apologize in advance if this Discord will be a lot quieter than you’re used to.
Please bear with us while we work out the next steps,
The A Year Of Rain Team
We got a chance to check out A Year of Rain at E3 and found it to be an interesting take on the RTS genre. On one hand, it feels like a throwback, almost playing exactly like you would have expected a Warcraft IV too. On the other hand, the game has a focus on co-op, even in the campaign, giving something slightly different. Either way, it always sucks to see a game fail and here's hoping things can go better.
A Year of Rain is currently available on Steam's Early Access program. There's no word on what the new plans will be for the game yet.
How do you feel about this news? Do you think A Year of Rain will make it? Are you hopeful for the full game? Let us know in the comments below!
