A team of volunteers is fighting to preserve "mini-MMO" Eldegarde after its sudden removal from Steam

Fantasy "mini-MMO" Eldegarde has been pulled from sale on Steam and will be shut down indefinitely at the end of March, just two months after its 1.0 launch. Starting its life as a PvPvE fusion of Arc Raiders' extraction gameplay and World of Warcraft's class design, it gradually evolved to offer more substantial PvE experiences in response to player feedback. Unfortunately, developer Notorious Studios, founded by former Blizzard veterans, says the game's full release "didn't gain enough traction to sustain the studio financially long term," and has made the decision to bring it to an early end.

"After a year on Steam through Early Access and into its recent 1.0 release, I'm saddened to share that we have decided to sunset Eldegarde, taking the game offline indefinitely," Notorious Studios founder and CEO Chris Kaleiki writes. He states that he and the team "still believe in the long-term opportunity for Eldegarde, and even today hope that we can resurrect it at some point." Most of the existing team has already moved on, but a "small group has volunteered to convert the game to be playable offline, or perhaps with a client-side server."

Kaleiki stresses that this "isn't a promise," and that the conversion process "is a challenging endeavor that will take a significant amount of time and may not be achievable any time soon (if ever)." He calls Eldegarde "an incredibly ambitious game for a new, small startup studio. It featured a unique combat system that blended action-RPG combat with MMO-like classes and spells, a session-based extraction mode that offered both PvPvE and PvE experiences, and deep, rich systems that I believe rival even mainline MMOs."

"While it started as a 'fantasy extraction game,' the 1.0 release evolved the vision into something of a mini-MMO that we planned to build on over time - perhaps one day growing into a next-generation traditional MMO." Kaleiki also points to the modern state of the wider industry as part of the reason for the sudden cutoff. "Some of the best games today weren't hits immediately, but grew their player base and achieved their ultimate vision over time.

"There is no doubt in my mind that, given enough time, Eldegarde would have become a great success," Kaleiki continues. "But the game industry has not been in a healthy state for a long time, which was also part of the reason I left Blizzard to start Notorious. We are in an incredible transitional moment in the industry right now, one that is causing a great deal of pain for studios and developers."

Kaleiki says the team at Notorious "strived to build a smaller, leaner, more focused studio," but that it wasn't enough to survive. "We are not immune to these tectonic shifts reshaping the industry. As painful as this is - including for us - I believe it will ultimately be for the best for both game developers and players in the long term."

In closing, Kaleiki thanks everyone who tried Eldegarde for the time and effort they invested. "I was asked from time to time what success at Notorious would look like, and I always said, 'To make a great game that players enjoy.' I wake up every day with fan mail telling us how much they've enjoyed the game and are rooting for our success, so given that metric for success, I feel a lot of gratitude."

Eldegarde is no longer available for sale on the Steam store. The game will remain online and playable until Tuesday March 31. Anyone who purchased the game over the past two weeks is eligible for a full refund, but claiming one will remove your access to play.