Gods and Heroes - Not So Heroic Now

Posted by Stropp on October 10, 2007

What does it mean when a company decides to put the game they are developing, and that is currently in the beta test phase, on an indefinite hold?

The news has just come through that Perpetual Entertainment is putting the brakes on the development of Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising.

Loyal and faithful community members and Beta testers, thank you for your support, help, and understanding during the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising development process.

The development team established some very lofty and ambitious goals when the initial work was started on Gods & Heroes. Recently, we took a step back to evaluate the competitive landscape, the game’s current state, and the overall goals for our organization. And while we are truly proud of and pleased with what we have created in Gods & Heroes, we also realize that achieving the level of quality and polish that we are committed to will take a significant investment.

The Perpetual team is faced with a unique challenge of simultaneously developing both Gods & Heroes and Star Trek Online in addition to growing our Online Game Platform business. After assessing all of Perpetual’s opportunities, we have made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold.

I want to express my overwhelming gratitude to the community, engineers, designers, artists, animators, and the game services team for the support and effort that has gone into Gods & Heroes.

Moving forward, we’re shifting our collective focus, resources and development efforts to Perpetual’s Platform Services division and Star Trek Online, thereby ensuring that the game lives up to the high level of expectation set by the dedicated Star Trek fan base.

Again, I would personally like to thank all of the Gods & Heroes supporters who have been with us from the beginning. Hopefully, your continued support will be as valuable to our future endeavors as it was with Gods & Heroes..

Vade in pace,
Chris McKibbin

You might remember that it was only a few weeks ago that Perpetual laid off a substantial part of their Gods and Heroes development team. The commentary at the time was that they had reached the point where they just needed to polish the game and didn’t require so many staff working on the game.

It really looks like Perpetual bit off more than they could chew by developing two MMOGs at the same time. Modern game development is an extremely costly endeavor. MMOG development, doubly so. Developing two MMOGs at the same time. Well, you know what they say about fighting a war on two fronts.

Laying off staff usually indicates budgetary problems, and let’s face it, a MMOG based on the Star Trek franchise is a far safer bet for a good financial return than a completely new IP like Gods and Heroes. The comment in the news release about evaluating the competitive landscape is pretty telling.

It is unlikely now that Gods and Heroes will ever be completed by Perpetual Entertainment. I think that the best that can be hoped for, is that the source code and other assets will be sold to another developer who will complete the game. In fact I think this is the most likely outcome, especially if they need the cash to complete Star Trek Online.

That Gods and Heroes is in beta indicates that it is close to being complete. That there is a fair bit of info out about the game means that any company willing to complete it, knows pretty much what they are getting. If PE gets the right offer we may see Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising some day after all.

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