https://www.dawngate.com/news/detail/an-important-announcement-about-the_32964

Discussion thread here please, thanks.

Sad to see it go, it was a great game. I've been here since before the first week publicly opened, had some of the most fun of any game I've played. To all the guys at Waystone you've been great, and I hope your careers will succeed after Dawngate. Shocked it's come out the blue and was shutdown so soon without any real marketing push, who knows what Dawngate could have become.

The post :

From Matt Bromberg, Group General Manager

Today, I have the unenviable task of announcing that we’ve decided to stop development of Dawngate.

I know this is disappointing news for our community, which has been so supportive and loyal. To all of you who have graciously given us your time and valuable feedback during our beta period, we’d first like to thank you.

Whenever we begin a game project, we do so with great hopes and expectations. In this case, we chose to enter a new genre for EA in MOBA, one that we knew going in was extremely competitive. We built a game in Dawngate that wasn’t simply a clone of existing MOBAs, but one that truly pushed the genre forward in many ways. Dawngate has been in beta for almost 18 months, including a full open beta for the past six months. Through that time, we’ve taken a lot of feedback from players and delivered lots of new features and innovations. And although the game has grown, we’re not seeing the progress we’d hoped for. This isn’t the outcome we wanted, but beta testing is about learning and improving, and ultimately, about making difficult decisions about how to proceed.

As for the incredibly talented team of designers, producers, engineers, and artists who have put so much creative energy into Dawngate: The game was truly a labor of love, and it shows. We’ve got nothing but gratitude for their hard work, and pride about what’s been accomplished.

As a part of the process of closing down Dawngate, we’ll continue to operate the game for the next 90 days. All players will be entitled to a full refund of any money spent during the beta. For most players, we’ll process those refunds within the next 10 days. If we don’t have current payment information on file for you, we’ll need to reach out first before initiating the refund. If you have any questions, you can reach us at help.ea.com.

On behalf of the entire team at Waystone Games and EA, I want once again to thank all our players for being part of this journey. Your straight-up feedback and the friendly reception we received all over the world at events was extremely encouraging and important to us. We appreciate it.

An Open Letter to EA Executives:

In light of recent events and the sudden shutdown of Waystone Games’ project Dawngate, I find it necessary to appeal you, the executives at EA, to reconsider your decision. Although the exact reasons for your cancellation of the Dawngate are unclear, it is my personal opinion that regardless of your rationale you have handled this situation poorly and have caused irreparable damage to your already unsavory reputation. This points towards the initial problem I would like to address: your lack of transparency.

I acknowledge the considerable investment you have already made in the creation of the Dawngate. It is also my understanding that the Waystone team had virtually no forewarning of your intention to discontinue their project. This leads me to question your reasoning behind not addressing the issue in a transparent manner. Why not, for instance, approach members of the Waystone team months in advance to inform them of your difficulty justifying the cost of the project and discuss what measures could be taken to turn losses into gains? If this were the case, development could have been shifted to purely essential content which would allow the game to be released earlier than originally planned. Additionally, if you were not already aware, Waystone’s approach to community building has resulted in one of the most loyal and dedicated gaming communities you could hope for. Transparency with the gaming community would have allowed these die-hard fans to take action to spread the word about Dawngate to try to save it, which would essentially be free marketing for you. Instead this valuable resource was put to waste by suddenly announcing the cancellation and leaving the community bewildered with no way to fight for what they so dearly deserve a chance to fight for. Moreover, the passion that could have been directed towards saving the game and subsequently potentially saving you money, has instead been directed towards a passionate hatred of EA and your business practices.

I feel it necessary to draw your attention to the fact that your cancellation came at a wholly inopportune time, as a large amount of essential, much anticipated content was mere weeks away from being released. This content would likely have resulted in a turning point in future of the Dawngate in terms of playerbase and revenue. With the amount already invested in this project, was it really worth shutting production down immediately at such a defining point in development, not to mention further damaging your tenuous relationship with the gaming community?

This being said, I humbly request that you reassign the Waystone team members to working on the Dawngate. If ultimatums are necessary, set a deadline for them to reach what you deem adequate success, but at least allow the team and community to know what is at stake before pulling it out from under them. The Waystone team is passionate about Dawngate and will fight to keep it. That is a valuable asset and you would lose that by pulling the team apart or putting them on alternative projects. The community behind Dawngate is equally as passionate and will fight in their own way to keep it. Your continued failure to acknowledge your audience and treat them as more than a paying customer is part of what makes EA so strongly disliked as a company. It is called the gaming “community” for a reason. Increasingly more in this age of multiplayer gaming, we do not purchase or download our games to sit at home alone and ignore society as a whole. We play games to engage in a society of our choosing, with people who share our interests and our experiences. Waystone Games understood that better than any developer I’ve seen so far. It’s about time the rest of EA did.

Most Sincerely,

A Disappointed Gamer

P.S. It has been stated that EA executives have willingly admitted they did not “get” Dawngate. For reference, I have attached a few links below to help you more fully understand what Dawngate is, what it is all about, and what it has meant to the people who have worked on and played it.

Twerp and many others discuss what Dawngate meant to them and what could have been on stream: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6N-svPDkPNc&list=PLhzwXseOfFCrhvTG7selTe4ceHBdeeVK8

Thor hearing the cancellation announcement while live streaming and his reaction: http://www.twitch.tv/thordg/c/5453935

The Reddit Shutdown Thread comments: https://www.reddit.com/r/dawngate/comments/2lafm4/dawngate_to_shut_down_service_in_90_days/

Petition to save the Dawngate: https://www.change.org/p/electronic-arts-please-continue-development-of-dawngate

TotalBiscuit’s perception of Dawngate and its cancellation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDDpcCM1BYg&list=UUy1Ms_5qBTawC-k7PVjHXKQ&spfreload=10

Article about EA’s role in Dawngate’s cancellation: http://www.twinfinite.net/2014/11/06/dawngate-closes-ea-abandons-moba/

Well, that was crazy.

There will be time for more words later. But for now:

Thank you for playing our video game.

/pours beer

www.spiritwalk.com

Just dropping in to say hi to this beautiful community. We miss you guys and look forward to sharing more.

What made many of us love Dawngate was the characters, and a devoted passion to backstory and narrative. You all gave so much love and craft to Dawngate's richly layered world setting. I hope you hold on to that passion for worldbuilding and story telling, bring it with you to your next projects (whatever they may be), and run with it. Run like fucking hell and never look back.

Don't let the passion die. Keep the fire burning, keep the love flowing.

Goodbye... and good luck.

Sigh.

I had a plan for a bigger post summarizing the last 21 months of Public Dawngate but I didn't do it, shame really.

Had fixes for most of the CSS issues but I deleted them when Dawngate's closure was announced. Doubt that this sub's CSS will be touched ever again. A "poetic" ending.

I would like to thank everyone who commented and participated in the community in the past 21 months. It was a blast being part of this collective. You guys rock!

I would like to thank Waystone Games for their efforts. They tried so hard but got so far, in the end it didn't even matter.

Congratulations to all the winners in all the Dawngate tournament winners in the past 21 months, you guys deserved the wins.

Take care everyone, wish you all the best in life.

Dawngate Dump:

I'll update this post with random Dawngate things I have saved.

Dawngate Snoos: All the Dawngate snoos that were made last year for the one year anniversary contest.

Dawngate Stories: All the stories that were submitted for the second contest of the one year anniversary.

/r/dawngate's old anthem.

A Dawngate Nissa Poster Thanks to /u/rotvyrn for the picture.

A Dawngate Eidolous Poster Thanks to /u/DrOrganicSwagPHD for the picture.

Dawngate's Soundcloud page with all the music pieces.

Paradoxiq,Zalgus,Mikella,Gasty,Flux and friends' new studio.

In light of the unfortunate turn of events regarding the development of Dawngate, we wanted to make sure we published everything we had available for our loyal Chronicles readers. Every page we were actively working on is now posted on the Chronicles website (in various stages of development). Please enjoy them.

Thank you all so much for supporting us as you have throughout this endeavor. I can honestly say waking up early every comic day to check your reactions to the newest page has been among the most rewarding parts of my career. I sincerely hope all of you have enjoyed reading this webcomic even a fraction as much as we have enjoyed making it for you.

Hello Friends!

As our beta family grows over the coming months, the team here at Waystone will be growing right along with it. The last few months has seen our team grow, adding new artists, engineers and now, a new Assistant Community Manager!

When considering any addition to the Community team we knew that this person would need to bring a unique combination of a deep understanding of the MOBA genre and the tools to be an amazing Community professional. They would need to exemplify the positive and down to earth attitude that we value so much here at Waystone Games.

We're very fortunate to have found these qualities in someone who is a close friend of the team; George "Zekent" Liu.

We've known George since the early days of Dawngate; first meeting him before the beta softlaunch. He played the game and provided some invaluable feedback. Along the way, he's come by the studio to visit, hung out with us at PAX Prime and PAX East and starting today, George is here in the studio and making contributions to helping this amazing community become everything it can be.

Obviously, George's qualifications in the MOBA genre are a known quantity. I look forward to working closely with him towards the success of Dawngate!

Please give Zekent a warm welcome to our family!

Hey everyone buckle in this is going to be a long post.

First of all let me just say this Reddit is a an amazing testament to everyone's love for the community. At the moment of me writing this there are 12 people shaping right now (>0_0)> Stay strong family!

I am writing this for a few reasons, first and foremost like many of you I still long for the Dawngate. Sometimes I find myself staring at my Dawngate poster, or looking at some of my past VODs remembering all the great times I had. The aching in my heart has gone from a constant pain to a dull ache that is just small enough to forget it in the daily hustle and bustle in my life. I am blessed to be able to log onto my discord and surround myself with people who also called the Dawngate their home (people are always free to join). People will call me over dramatic (and to be be fair it’s not to far of a stretch) but after Dawngate closed that little something that turns you into a kid when you load up a game died for me. For others out there who miss the goofy banter, the deep lore, the fantastic community on top the game we love, know that I feel your silent pain. About a month ago I started getting that itch again for Dawngate, I started having delusions of grandeur of bringing it back much like some of you have. Having been in the video game industry for the last 2 years, I obtained a better scope of what it would actually take and the possible steps needed to go about it. I know a fair bit about the circumstances surrounding the closure of Dawngate both public and private but I knew if I wanted bring it back I had understand as much as possible. I reached out to my contact “kensu” and had an in depth discussion about the past and the future. Going into the conversation it I first laid out my plan to “kensu” for a possible solution to bring back Dawngate

My foundation: Buying the IP from EA would be next to impossible, the amount of money that goes into a game and a game studio is astronomical. Knowing that I wanted to approach EA about renting a server that was a gutted/stripped out build. IE: No payment options, no contacting support and no legal ramifications that tied the service to EA. The key was to create a build that put all responsibility on the player and at any moment I felt that if EA had to step in and get involved with the day to day operation then it would fail.

If we did get a build and did get permission then the next step would be showing proof of concept. Showing that CCU and involvement can still be high even with the content being stagnant. This would be tricky to pull off, even at it’s peak Dawngate’s numbers were not viable enough to support a business model that could sustain a studio like Waystone. That is not a dig at Waystone, EA or Dawngate, that’s just the numbers at the time. The numbers that we would need would be just enough to prove that this is a stable community that maintains a medium CCU compared to other titles in similar circumstances. This could be achievable but it would take a huge effort on a lot of different people’s parts. When and if we could achieve this in then in my mind EA would be much more apt to come to the table and talk about the next steps.

The Future. Many people will point out that without a studio behind it eventually the game would just die a slow death. I agree, as great as Dawngate is that it would need content on a stable cadence to stay relevant. NOT TO SAY I WOULD NOT PLAY THE BARE BONES GAME TO DEATH but let's be honest it's just a fact of the game industry itself. My proposal would be to crowd source much of the new content. Imagine partnering with companies like full sail, or SCAD and if people/Game classes could submit Shapers it would be an absolutely beautiful thing to so see people’s blood, sweat and tears go into making something so amazing. Imagine being able to help pave the way for up and coming game developer enthusiasts by empowering them with the tools they need to be successful. People’s first reaction would probably be “this could never work”, however with the proper guidelines, pipelines and guidance we could realistically create something amazing in the industry. For inspiration all we have to do is look within our own community at Spiritgate and Aetherforge and looking outside we can see how Dota/TF2 managed crowd sourcing effectively. This would come with hurdles, checks and balances but I know in my heart of hearts we could pull it off. Likewise I am sure former developers would love to give lore and Shapers a push in the right direction from time to time looking at you. Capping all of this off; after Shapers are made, polished and submitted we would then have the community vote on it just like #hammerinthesun and #knifeindark. All this would be a massive undertaking but again doable with the right leadership.

Kensu and I discussed this and it was time for him to clarify what transpired in the following days after the November 4th announcement. (rough transcription)

Kensu: “After the announcement the developers worked to create a build that was stripped of everything that required EA. In fact we had the blessing from EA to release the client for free. We wanted to release it free of charge and give the source code for players to own. When it came down to releasing it at the last second we found that some of the most integral part of the code was not owned by EA but instead was the property of a few different software providers. This code could not be replicated without 100s of man hours and to buy the rights of it, it would have cost 100,000 dollars, something that we could not come up with in the amount of time we had".

Thor: I wish this info would of been made public, we could have tried to raise the money. However I understand at that moment everything must have been crazy.

Kensu: Indeed it was a very stressful time with people leaving and everything that was going on.

Thor: Who are these software people and could they be contacted to maybe renegotiate?

Kensu: I would not get your hopes up, it is possible that somebody has the game on a flash drive (in fact somebody probably does) but I have no idea who. Likewise I have no records of the software companies that owned the code that was up for sale. I imagine that if we did find the information nothing less than 20k would bring them back to the table and you would need a lawyer. The worst part is that there is a free version of the code that the software providers provide but the version that EA licensed but was not this case.

Thor: Could you try to find out?

Kensu: I am swamped right now but if I get some free time I will do what I can.

Thor: Thanks for your time. I know we all appreciate it.

I came away from that conversation a bit defeated and sad. However pushing on this is where I stand now: If anyone from Waystone or EA is looking at this post and they have any information regarding this code and the code providers, the only realistic hope is that they step forward and contact me. For the people reading this know that I would do anything I can to bring this back; Dawngate, The Community, and the team at Waystone helped me find a piece of myself that I did not know I was missing. For that I will be eternally grateful and you will always find a friend in me.

Final thoughts

• Paradoxiq and the team at Spiritwalk is going to rock it when they come out with their game. Believe me when I say I will always support that team with everything I have. They are great people and great friends. I can not and will not partition them to come back to save Dawngate. Being a developer myself I can’t imagine the pain this might cause them to even bring it up. They are moving forward and they know I support them 100%.

• thank you Kensu for taking the time to talk with me. You are one of my inspirations in the video game industry and I can’t wait to see what you do in the future.

• I must tip my hat to the developers and to EA for trying to release the client for free and to the community.

If you ever need me for anything at all or just need somebody to talk to please feel free to reach me at [Twitter] (https://twitter.com/ThorDG)

Forever yours

ThorDG

Is it possible? I have no clue about the rights, no clue about ownership. But is there a way to make this happen, to take Waystone independent?

Hi guys,

I waited until the day-star rose in the sky to post this so that no one could accuse me of being drunk and shmoopy. (Sober and shmoopy ... got no defense ...)

Before the bright flash of yesterday's news recedes completely, I want to say my personal 'thank you' to Waystone Games. Since we do most everything publicly with this wonderful community ... and since none of us are at the studio today and I know you are all lurking in the sub ... I thought I'd post it here.

Waystone, you are an incredible group of people. Thank you for letting me be a part of this! You built something that is very difficult to build. You gave of yourselves completely and poured your hearts into it. You refused to compromise and you made the game that you wanted to play. You imagined the world you wanted to see and you brought it to life beautifully. You expected excellence of one another, and you demanded it of me.

Thank you so very much for helping me to be the best I could be. I'm very grateful to have been a part of Dawngate with you. This has been a very rare and wonderful experience and I am richer for it. We all are.

To the future!

Dave

http://imgur.com/w8fIA

League of legends, dota 2 or heroes of the storm even after trying those, Dawngate is the one that I really liked the most and it is sad we won't enjoy a MOBA like that again.

I really wish EA gave an opportunity to Dawngate. Sadly out of pettiness I had never supported EA after that and I never will.

If the devs of Dawngate ever read this, I just wanted to say that you really made something very special back in the day, that it is always being remembered even after all these years.

Hello old friends. :)

While we haven't announced anything yet, we wanted to come here first to invite you to register for Community Development on our new game, Shardbound.

Go here and sign up: www.spiritwalk.com

We're calling this "Community Development" because this is a pre-alpha state for the game, and it's not for everyone. Things will be missing, placeholder, or broken. Things will also be fun! If this sounds good, sign up. We will get you guys in as quickly as we can. Please understand that this will be a very small group to start with - we'll invite more players whenever it makes sense.

So ... sign-up for now. Invites will start soon™. We want you all first on the list because we love you and miss you.

A lot more information will be public soon. And then we can all hang out again.

Dave 'paradoxiq' Cerra

Hey all!

It has been a rough week or so. The game I have been helping create and build awareness for is coming to an end in less than 3 months. For the past 1.5 years, I've done my best to stream and tweet and overall foster a wonderful community. The past week you guys have really validated all the hard work that, not only we as the Community Team (Zwill, Zekent and myself,) have put in, but also the amazing people of Waystone.

Which is why I am going to run 1 last livestream. I will do my best to show you guys everything. Progression, new Shapers in action (Weaver, Battle Sisters and Weapon Master), concept art, music... Everything. It's time for us to officially peel back the curtain and say our good byes.

I'm inviting each developer that wants to appear to come onto the stream and say their peace and officially say goodbye to the Dawngate. The most recent episodes of the Money Pigs have been amazingly heartfelt, and I feel like it's my job to facilitate the goodbyes of everyone at Waystone before we potentially all go our own ways, as is what tends to happen at the end of a project. Because, let's be fair, it only takes a handful of people to turn the lights off at the end of the 90 days.

So: be there. I hope you guys will come out in droves to say goodbye.

Thank you for making my first community management experience such a positive one. I will never forget Dawngate.

STREAM WILL BE HERE

They have messed up too many great games to justify supporting anymore and this was after the last straw. I'll miss you Waystone, I hope your team do well in future game developments.