In a recent Patreon post, Forager's main developer HopFrog has announced that the Forager multiplayer update is canceled due to a poor codebase and poor overall standards by his former development team. It was also announced that with the Forager multiplayer update being canceled there will also be refunds for those that bought the game just for its canceled multiplayer and that the game/series hasn't been abandoned:
I still want to work on Forager and add new things to it. And I have another Forager-related game in the works that I think you guys are gonna LOVE. But for now, I think the best is to take a step back and come back to it later on with a fresh mindset and ready to add a ton of actually good content, perhaps in the form of a polished sequel in a few years.
HopFrog then stated that the quality of the Multiplayer Beta was really low, a year late, and had lots of crashes and most of the features weren't working. Some people couldn't even start the game at all. HopFrog hasn't been working on the game since the Appreciation update, which was all the way back on June 7, 2019. Since then there's been a development team that he's contracted to make updates that HopFrog says were "very poorly made." This includes the balance, the overall gameplay, fighting enemies, the Mac and Linux versions "got completely ruined". The one update HopFrog did like, the Combat Update, still had things he didn't like such as the UI rework, which he views as terrible, and the animation quality dropped as well.
How to get a refund
- If you pledged on Patreon to play the closed beta, directly message HopFrog on Patreon for a refund.
- If you bought the game on Steam, go to this page and follow the instructions.
- If you bought the game on GOG, go to this page and follow the instructions.
- If you bought the game on Humble Bundle, go to this page and follow the instructions.
- If you bought the game on console you'll have to message the customer support departments for your respective console. If you need any help getting any contact information, message HopFrog and he'll do his best to help you.
After the first week of the multiplayer's beta, HopFrog looked into getting a new development team, but apparently, the codebase has become very poorly coded and bloated so no one wants to take it on. Apparently, in order to remake the game/update from scratch, it would take 2-3 years before it's playable, and HopFrog would rather make a Forager 2 before taking that option. That is more likely to happen after we see another Forager-related game based on some parts of the post.
Stay tuned to TechRaptor for more updates on the Forager series in general.