Wayfinder: Worst Early Release Game Launch?
The vibrant and fantasy action MMO, Wayfinder, hailing from the creators of the popular game series Darksiders, Airship Syndicate, in collaboration with Warframe's publisher, Digital Extremes, has embarked on an Early Access journey prior to the full launch in six months marked by a decidedly rocky reception that rivals the troubled launches of Cyberpunk 2077 and No Man's Sky.
Early adopters have been met with a tumultuous experience, as a surge in player numbers led to server woes and prolonged wait times. While the current Early Access version requires a $19.99 purchase of the “Base Founder Pack" or $149.99 for the Exalted Founders bundle which includes the game to get everything from the other 3 Tiers including in-game currency, exclusive skins, a mount, premium season passes, access to reward towers and more, despite the game being completely Free-To-Play come full launch.
Image Credit: playwayfinder.com
Airship Syndicate admitted that the number of players flooding in each minute had surpassed the daily beta participation, leaving the queue system gasping for air right from the start. Players have been complaining of hours-long queues culminating in failed connection attempts and subsequent resets, causing many to take to Steam to leave scathing reviews. Furthermore, there have been reports of players getting disconnected after only a brief gameplay session, following their patience in enduring these protracted queues.
Another point of contention surfaced in relation to missing free items from a premium Founder's Pack bundle that seemingly just never existing for players on launch. Additionally, concerns have been raised about the pricing structure of in-game items in relation to the value of in-game currency packs. As a whole, it's been a far from favorable period for both the developers and the devoted fans of this new action RPG. As of this moment, Wayfinder has over 10,000 Mostly Negative Steam reviews where only 31% are noted as being "positive".
The Dev Team issued a series a tweets to the community on launch day, noting their awareness to issues with server access, missing bundle items and players getting stuck at the front of the growing queue to load into the game, only to be forced to start over form the back of the line.
As of August 20th, the Wayfinder Devs released a tweet stating that the team is continuing to increase server numbers to aide in players being able to actually connect to the game. Also, the team revealed they are working to get a disconnection grace period added ASAP given how disconnects have been one of the prime complaints on a growing laundry list of issues.
Between the disasterous launch of early access locked behind a paywall and the growing concerns that the developers may have bitten off more than they can chew, it's safe to say first impressions have soured many players desire to give the game and the studio another chance, while those who were able to actually get in note the game is actually quite enjoyable, well polished and willing to weather out the storm of what could be called one of the worst game launches of all time.
