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A Hit Game Just Completely Shut Down (And Fans Are Stunned)
While every game would love to be a forever game, the current landscape of the gaming world is a competitive place, even for the most high-profile titles. The past few years have had games like Concord and Highguard suddenly shut down, and today, another game has done the same. The big difference is that while Concord and Highguard shut down before they could even gain a foothold in the space, today’s shutdown was by a successful game that just pulled in €1.1 million, and fans were completely stunned by the news of its end.
Today, fans were shocked and disheartened to learn that the innovative Trading Card Game Altered has been shut down by Equinox, and the news was given after Equinox cancelled the current crowdfunding campaign on Gamefound for its newest expansion, Roots of Corruption. Altered’s Roots of Corrupton had already blown past its €50,000 goal with over €421,000, and had another €680,000 from its professional partners, but despite the combined $1.1 million assembled, Equinox revealed it was too far away from its real goal of $2 million for the future of the game, so not only is the campaign ending, but so is the game in its entirety. Some reactions were critical of how Equinox rolled out this campaign and the game in general, but there were also many who were just disappointed to learn that the game was completely ending.
Why Is Altered Ending?
Altered hit the ground running by raising over €6 million Euros in 2024 to launch the game, and it boasted stunning visuals, compelling gameplay, and an innovative shared digital collection aspect that incorporated QR codes. Over the course of the first year, the game was moving along well and releasing new sets, though it had its share of challenges in the market due to a variety of competing TCGs and certain hurdles of its own design.
Fast forward to earlier this year for the Seeds of Unity Gamefound campaign, which ended up bringing in €908,000 and funding the project, but there was one important catch to that. With Seeds of Unity, Equinox revealed that it needed to hit €2.5 million to secure the future of the game, though that was a global number that also factored in professional retailers.
After the campaign funded, the company revealed they secured enough to release Seeds of Unity and move the series forward with Roots of Corruption, and for the new expansion they only needed €2 million to cover necessary and basic expenses for the game, as well as production, shipping, and salaries, though €2 million is still a huge number, especially when compared to its €50,000 goal.
Equinox did explain in an update on Seeds of Unity that they had to set the goal to €50,000 in order to take advantage of Gamefound’s stretch goals system, and there was no way to show the professional retailers’ contributions to the set either.
That brings us to the here and now, where Equinox founder Régis Bonnessée spoke about the ending of the game in their latest Gamefound update. Bonnessée wrote, “We are far—far too far—from the vital goal of €2 million we had set to guarantee the future of the game. It would be dishonest to tell you that we can still turn the tide by Friday evening. We must face reality: the numbers simply aren’t there.”
Further in the update, Bonnessée addressed the players, store owners, and the team who helped create the game. When addressing what happens next, Bonnessée wrote, “I know that the settling silence brings its share of questions: what will happen to your digital collections? To the future on Board Game Arena? To the legacy of this universe? We are not going to leave you in a vacuum. We simply need some time to digest this moment, to properly close this chapter, and to provide you with clear and respectful answers. Thank you for every card played, for every smile exchanged, and for everything you put of yourselves into this adventure. It was an honor to imagine it with you.”
With the game no longer moving forward, it will likely start to be phased out in terms of organized play, but it’s not known how soon that will happen. It’s always disappointing to see a game shut down abruptly, especially when it experienced success at the start and showed such promise.
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