We have received the unfortunate news that Mythgard will be going into Maintenance Mode starting with the newest patch. What this means for the game:
- Servers will still be up for the time being.
- There is no new large content planned for the game for the time being, with the possibility of small expansions created using volunteer art.
- Mythril will remain purchasable in store, and profits made from it will be used to maintain the servers.
- A new battle pass system has been implemented with this update, as that has been in the works already.
- The End of Season tournament planned for this weekend will still take place.
- Ranked season will proceed as originally planned for the rest of 2021, with future years having 8 seasons each, roughly equal in size.
You can see Rhino's full announcement down below.
Quote From Rhino Games Dear Players,
It’s with great sadness that I announce that Mythgard will be entering Maintenance Mode. The team fought tooth and nail over five grueling years trying to make it happen, but the CCG market is a different place than it was all those years ago, with several large companies able to totally outspend us on both content, but far more importantly, on marketing.
I personally have put the large part of my life savings into this game. Most of the team have worked at far below market rates to make it. All out of love for what we were doing. I’ll forever be in their debt for following me into this venture, for their tireless hard work, and for the precious things they’ve sacrificed on the way. As time passed, our team members have dropped off one by one due to a need to provide for their family and to seek some measure of financial security. I don’t think any of them did so because they truly wanted to. At last, our numbers have dwindled to the point that it’s simply no longer possible to continue creating additional content.
I’ll forever be grateful to the many players who spent time and money on the game. Over the years, I’ve met a lot of truly wonderful people in the community, who I only hope that we’ve managed to provide some fond memories.
I especially want to thank Noah, who has volunteered his time, for as long as he’s able, to continue to provide community support and what development effort he can towards live balance. He’s been an absolute wonder, and a joy to work with. I also want to thank both Noah and Mantid for their work on Hub, foxfire_kadrpg for his absolutely amazing and adorable axolotl emotes, nirast for running the outof.cards Mythgard portal, the folks at 983 (especially Markthius) for their work on tournaments, nelzya for being one of the very first players of the game and sticking with us all this time, and all of the various many wonderful people who over the years created content, evangelized the game, and otherwise supported us.
What does maintenance mode mean?
We’ll no longer be working actively on a large expansion set. Some of the team members have been discussing how to make smaller sets using licensed art on a volunteer basis, but there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to do this effectively. The servers will remain up as long as I can reasonably pay for them out of pocket. As I mentioned above, Noah has volunteered to help with balance changes should any become advisable.
Ranked seasons for 2021 will continue as planned. Beyond that, there will be eight ranked seasons per year. They will be split relatively evenly across the year. We still plan on holding the third EOS tournament on the July 10th weekend, as that has already been paid for.
For now, players will still be able to buy mythril. Please view any money you spend on Mythgard as a donation to keep the servers up a little longer, as that’s where it will go. Similarly, you may wonder why we’re shipping the paid Titan battle pass at the same time as announcing maintenance mode. The reason is fairly simple - it was already long done by the time we got to this point, and while we could have delayed the announcement of maintenance mode to see if we could make some extra money off of it, we’d rather not do.
Thank you all again for all the amazing support over the years, and for making Mythgard such a fun project to work on.
-phu
Battle Pass Patchnotes
The patch notes regarding the battle pass:
Quote From Rhino Games
Added new battle pass system
Earn rewards by completing missions
Six free battle passes. One for each color
Free battle passes contain 30 levels, 3 mythics and 1 mythic wildcard
New Titan battle pass (2350 Mythril)
6 exclusive card materials, 1 trim and game board
2 mythic wild cards
Free colored battle passes replace existing faction tracks
Currently, there is no time limit on completing the battle passes
Added 5 new learning puzzles
End of Season Tournament
As mentioned above, the End of Season tournament will still be happening this weekend. The first round will take place on Saturday, which will determine the final 8 that will compete on Sunday, with the stream being cast on Mythgard’s official channel. Let’s give them a last hurrah!
Comments
problem with Runeterra is that its too f2p friendly, which leaves me thinking if Riot is actually making enough money to keep the game on the long run.
HS and MTG are the only card games that have stood the test of time and are here to stay. LOR is definitely a winner but is it profitable?
It's not "too f2p friendly" - it's monetized differently. Rather than paying for the privilege of getting to use the cards in the game, you pay for the cosmetics to look cool while you do it.
And there are plenty of people who pay to look cool. And even some who are impatient to get all the cards, so they pay for those too. But even there, you pay for exactly the cards you want to get, rather than paying for a random chance to maybe get the cards you want to get.
If there’s any company that knows how to profit off of cosmetic sales, it’s Riot. I don’t believe they’d put so much focus on the game if it’s first year hadn’t been successful. Right now, Runeterra seems to be at the forefront of their plans to expand the world and characters. Also, I can say that a solid majority of players I meet online have at least some paid cosmetics. I can’t tell exactly how much they’re making, but it’s not the failure that you might expect.
As for the difficulty of succeeding in this market: It’s true that there are a ton of failed CCGs, but the computer-based market is still pretty new. There are a lot of collectible games in meatspace that have been successful longer than Hearthstone has been around. The reason companies keep trying despite the failures is that there are enough big success stories to make it worthwhile.
Another game I play being shut down. So amazing.