Dave Lang from Iron Galaxy talks Rumbleverse from 39:07 to 50:05. The video below will begin at that point.
Rumbleverse was generally well received by critics and the industry as a whole, but it's a fiercely competitive landscape currently. Dave said "There's a handful of winners, and then a whole lot of everyone else." There are a ton of games vying for everyone's attention and time, so not every game is guaranteed to reach a large audience... even if it's as incredible as Rumbleverse. Many people didn't find out about the game until it was declared to be shutting down, and even then, people are still discovering it existed today...
But that's a story for another time. So what did we learn from this video? Here's the important parts:
- No one who worked on the game was laid off. They were moved onto other games very quickly once the decision was made to sunset the game. It sounds like the decision was not made by Iron Galaxy, at least in full, as they too felt it was quick. They would have liked more time to figure out what to do with the game if possible.
- To bring back the game would require quite a bit of work still. Rumbleverse relied on the Epic store and service for a lot of functions, which would need to be swapped out. For example, the friends list relies on Epic ID's and the free to play backend would need to be made anew. It's not as simple as handing the game over to another publisher and telling them to post it the next day.
- Iron Galaxy owns 100% of Rumbleverse. No licensing or other obstacles are in the way of a return.
- If the game was released for $60 (or whatever price) and you didn't need matchmaking, or a free to play back end to maintain, you're done with the main "spend" part of development. However, since Rumbleverse has these things, there was money to be spent every day on the game. This means that even if the decision not to continue with development/updates for the game was made, they couldn't just leave it up forever because it's still costing someone money. How will this play into convincing another publisher to take up the game?
- Iron Galaxy is trying to find a new home for Rumbleverse now!
"We did build a pretty good community of people out there that really wanted to see it thrive and want to see it prosper, and I want to bring something back for them to enjoy as well."
"Are we going to be able to bring it back? If not exactly the way it was today, in what form?" Iron Galaxy is just now getting to a phase where they know they are stable and can look into what can be done for Rumbleverse.
There will certainly be some obstacles to bringing Rumbleverse back, and there's plenty of work that needs doing to make it happen... but it sounds like Iron Galaxy may have found a crate full of Golden Squaaats Chicken to lift their spirits. There's hope that the sun will rise again in Grapital City!