Further Funding Acquired for Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen

achesoma

VR just announced a 7 figure investment. 

https://visionaryrealms.com/further-funding-acquired-for-pantheon-rise-of-the-fallen/

They also mention they have 8,000 pledges to alpha test. Alpha pledges start at $250. 

AngryElf

Get back to work. 

Nanfoodle

Well thats awesome news, they seems to be able to allways pull things out of the fire just before things burn down. Especially when you look back at the fact this started with a failed kickstarter. lol

achesoma

Apparently, Chris Kronenthal is the president of a company called FreedomPay. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskronenthal

achesoma

Rhoklaw said:

I wonder if the recent Cohh playthrough video had anything to do with the solidifying of this deal.

No, in the Cohh stream Ben specifically mentioned a big investment announcement coming in the next week. 

Remali

Thats great but 7 figure could just mean 1000000 $ which is not much for making an mmorpg

Nanfoodle

Remali said:

Thats great but 7 figure could just mean 1000000 $ which is not much for making an mmorpg

Yes but no where does it say they have stopped looking for more investors. Also, this team has become experts at stretching a buck or two. Considering what they started with and managed to build. 

Remali

remsleep said:

Remali said:

Thats great but 7 figure could just mean 1000000 $ which is not much for making an mmorpg

True if they were starting from zero - but Panthron has been in development for a while now

Well of course im not saying 1mil is all the got 
Im just saying that 7 figure is not so impressive in the mmorpg world
If they got a 8 figure investment it would be so much better hehe

EQBallzz

This is good news I guess but after reading that newsletter it still sounds like this game is only a barely functional framework being propped up as a proof of concept for more funding as opposed to any sort of fleshed out MMO. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it doesn't sound like it's even close to being in Alpha let alone release. Hope I'm wrong.

Nanfoodle

EQBallzz said:

This is good news I guess but after reading that newsletter it still sounds like this game is only a barely functional framework being propped up as a proof of concept for more funding as opposed to any sort of fleshed out MMO. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it doesn't sound like it's even close to being in Alpha let alone release. Hope I'm wrong.

By VRs own devs, they are in Pre-Alpha 5. This is the last Pre-Alpha stage and like all the Pre-Alpha phases, they have many stages. Pre-Alpha 5 plan is to put everything they have built to have one full area of the game playable with all key systems in the game. So starting city to level cap. All classes as well, playable. Working end game content. When that is finished and they have much of the framework for that. Alpha 1 will start. 

Alpha one will be getting 8000 of their Alpha testers playing the game and polishing it to the point that they can share the content with investors. Once they have enough backing, they will use the game they have built as a model to build the other starting cities and world and bringing all the working systems they have polished. 

This will be the fastest part of their development. The hardest stuff will be behind them at that point and it all hinges on finding more backers like they just did with what I hope is the first of more to come. 

EQBallzz

Nanfoodle said:

EQBallzz said:

This is good news I guess but after reading that newsletter it still sounds like this game is only a barely functional framework being propped up as a proof of concept for more funding as opposed to any sort of fleshed out MMO. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it doesn't sound like it's even close to being in Alpha let alone release. Hope I'm wrong.

By VRs own devs, they are in Pre-Alpha 5. This is the last Pre-Alpha stage and like all the Pre-Alpha phases, they have many stages. Pre-Alpha 5 plan is to put everything they have built to have one full area of the game playable with all key systems in the game. So starting city to level cap. All classes as well, playable. Working end game content. When that is finished and they have much of the framework for that. Alpha 1 will start. 

Alpha one will be getting 8000 of their Alpha testers playing the game and polishing it to the point that they can share the content with investors. Once they have enough backing, they will use the game they have built as a model to build the other starting cities and world and bringing all the working systems they have polished. 

This will be the fastest part of their development. The hardest stuff will be behind them at that point and it all hinges on finding more backers like they just did with what I hope is the first of more to come. 

That's all well and good but much like pre-alpha turned into pre-alpha 1-5 I wouldn't be surprised if pre-alpha 5 doesn't turn into pre-alpha 6-10 or pre-alpha 5b or pre-pre-alpha 5.1.

I do get what you are saying and while it's probably technically true that ironing out all the systems is the most difficult I don't think anyone could say with confidence those are all completely ironed out and that also doesn't mean the other stuff like world building isn't still a huge amount of time consuming work. My point is that the game still seems years away from any sort of release state.

Nanfoodle

EQBallzz said:

Nanfoodle said:

EQBallzz said:

This is good news I guess but after reading that newsletter it still sounds like this game is only a barely functional framework being propped up as a proof of concept for more funding as opposed to any sort of fleshed out MMO. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it doesn't sound like it's even close to being in Alpha let alone release. Hope I'm wrong.

By VRs own devs, they are in Pre-Alpha 5. This is the last Pre-Alpha stage and like all the Pre-Alpha phases, they have many stages. Pre-Alpha 5 plan is to put everything they have built to have one full area of the game playable with all key systems in the game. So starting city to level cap. All classes as well, playable. Working end game content. When that is finished and they have much of the framework for that. Alpha 1 will start. 

Alpha one will be getting 8000 of their Alpha testers playing the game and polishing it to the point that they can share the content with investors. Once they have enough backing, they will use the game they have built as a model to build the other starting cities and world and bringing all the working systems they have polished. 

This will be the fastest part of their development. The hardest stuff will be behind them at that point and it all hinges on finding more backers like they just did with what I hope is the first of more to come. 

That's all well and good but much like pre-alpha turned into pre-alpha 1-5 I wouldn't be surprised if pre-alpha 5 doesn't turn into pre-alpha 6-10 or pre-alpha 5b or pre-pre-alpha 5.1.

I do get what you are saying and while it's probably technically true that ironing out all the systems is the most difficult I don't think anyone could say with confidence those are all completely ironed out and that also doesn't mean the other stuff like world building isn't still a huge amount of time consuming work. My point is that the game still seems years away from any sort of release state.

You stated you wondered where they could be in development. I just told you what the devs have said. You dont want to believe them, thats your right. Their words, thats their game plan and Pre-Alpha 5 is the last Pre-Alpha. It has a few stages to it and Alpha is next. (((shrugs))) do what you want with their info  

Nanfoodle

FoolOfATook39

Great news. I’m patiently waiting for any beta I can get in on and try it out. Good luck and god speed VR.  

Kyleran

Nanfoodle said:

EQBallzz said:

Nanfoodle said:

EQBallzz said:

This is good news I guess but after reading that newsletter it still sounds like this game is only a barely functional framework being propped up as a proof of concept for more funding as opposed to any sort of fleshed out MMO. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it doesn't sound like it's even close to being in Alpha let alone release. Hope I'm wrong.

By VRs own devs, they are in Pre-Alpha 5. This is the last Pre-Alpha stage and like all the Pre-Alpha phases, they have many stages. Pre-Alpha 5 plan is to put everything they have built to have one full area of the game playable with all key systems in the game. So starting city to level cap. All classes as well, playable. Working end game content. When that is finished and they have much of the framework for that. Alpha 1 will start. 

Alpha one will be getting 8000 of their Alpha testers playing the game and polishing it to the point that they can share the content with investors. Once they have enough backing, they will use the game they have built as a model to build the other starting cities and world and bringing all the working systems they have polished. 

This will be the fastest part of their development. The hardest stuff will be behind them at that point and it all hinges on finding more backers like they just did with what I hope is the first of more to come. 

That's all well and good but much like pre-alpha turned into pre-alpha 1-5 I wouldn't be surprised if pre-alpha 5 doesn't turn into pre-alpha 6-10 or pre-alpha 5b or pre-pre-alpha 5.1.

I do get what you are saying and while it's probably technically true that ironing out all the systems is the most difficult I don't think anyone could say with confidence those are all completely ironed out and that also doesn't mean the other stuff like world building isn't still a huge amount of time consuming work. My point is that the game still seems years away from any sort of release state.

You stated you wondered where they could be in development. I just told you what the devs have said. You dont want to believe them, thats your right. Their words, thats their game plan and Pre-Alpha 5 is the last Pre-Alpha. It has a few stages to it and Alpha is next. (((shrugs))) do what you want with their info  

Err, have the Pantheon team indicated how long the Alpha phase will last?

Start Citizens is on like version 3.12, going strong after three or more years, Camelot Unchained brought whole new meaning to the term Beta1 going on a year and a half and a friend just told me Seven Days to die has been in Alpha since 2013?

Miles to go before they sleep.

Kyleran

achesoma said:

Apparently, Chris Kronenthal is the president of a company called FreedomPay. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskronenthal

@delete5230, looks like the investors felt some new senior management was necessary, go figure.

Board level no less....guess we know where some of that new money will be spent.

Mendel

Kyleran said:

achesoma said:

Apparently, Chris Kronenthal is the president of a company called FreedomPay. 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/chriskronenthal

@delete5230, looks like the investors felt some new senior management was necessary, go figure.

Board level no less....guess we know where some of that new money will be spent.

More telling might be to wonder if how hands-on this new senior management person will want to be.  Money always has a cost.

Good that VR has more money.  I doubt that will be the last we hear about their financial position, though.  A smallish company with little money always seems to have more cash flow issues. 

It's a good step to let investors take the burden from people who mostly just want to play the game.  Maybe this will generate others, and bring an end to this whole 'crowdfunding' thing.  In a dozen years, we might even be able to look back at this period of history and laugh, maybe.

Kumapon

Nice to see VR get more funding. I guess Chris Kronenthal will sit on the board with David Reitman, and Chris Rowan. Interesting to see where this goes. 

Also VR has hired two new staff members. Mark "Fusoya" Maraglino who used to work on Vanguard as the Monk Dev. He is doing QA for the Pantheon team. 

 Jeanna "BlueEyedGator" Ruschell will be doing Human recourses, and Customer support.  

Quizzical

Remali said:

remsleep said:

Remali said:

Thats great but 7 figure could just mean 1000000 $ which is not much for making an mmorpg

True if they were starting from zero - but Panthron has been in development for a while now

Well of course im not saying 1mil is all the got 
Im just saying that 7 figure is not so impressive in the mmorpg world
If they got a 8 figure investment it would be so much better hehe

If it were $9 million, they probably wouldn't call it "7 figure", as that would lead people to think it was less than it actually was.

Nanfoodle

Kyleran said:

Nanfoodle said:

EQBallzz said:

Nanfoodle said:

EQBallzz said:

This is good news I guess but after reading that newsletter it still sounds like this game is only a barely functional framework being propped up as a proof of concept for more funding as opposed to any sort of fleshed out MMO. Maybe I'm reading too much into it but it doesn't sound like it's even close to being in Alpha let alone release. Hope I'm wrong.

By VRs own devs, they are in Pre-Alpha 5. This is the last Pre-Alpha stage and like all the Pre-Alpha phases, they have many stages. Pre-Alpha 5 plan is to put everything they have built to have one full area of the game playable with all key systems in the game. So starting city to level cap. All classes as well, playable. Working end game content. When that is finished and they have much of the framework for that. Alpha 1 will start. 

Alpha one will be getting 8000 of their Alpha testers playing the game and polishing it to the point that they can share the content with investors. Once they have enough backing, they will use the game they have built as a model to build the other starting cities and world and bringing all the working systems they have polished. 

This will be the fastest part of their development. The hardest stuff will be behind them at that point and it all hinges on finding more backers like they just did with what I hope is the first of more to come. 

That's all well and good but much like pre-alpha turned into pre-alpha 1-5 I wouldn't be surprised if pre-alpha 5 doesn't turn into pre-alpha 6-10 or pre-alpha 5b or pre-pre-alpha 5.1.

I do get what you are saying and while it's probably technically true that ironing out all the systems is the most difficult I don't think anyone could say with confidence those are all completely ironed out and that also doesn't mean the other stuff like world building isn't still a huge amount of time consuming work. My point is that the game still seems years away from any sort of release state.

You stated you wondered where they could be in development. I just told you what the devs have said. You dont want to believe them, thats your right. Their words, thats their game plan and Pre-Alpha 5 is the last Pre-Alpha. It has a few stages to it and Alpha is next. (((shrugs))) do what you want with their info  

Err, have the Pantheon team indicated how long the Alpha phase will last?

Start Citizens is on like version 3.12, going strong after three or more years, Camelot Unchained brought whole new meaning to the term Beta1 going on a year and a half and a friend just told me Seven Days to die has been in Alpha since 2013?

Miles to go before they sleep.

If they had said when I would have said that. Also comparing SC crusty tactics to VRs is a far miss. 

Ungood

I am glad to hear they got the funding, if they put something out, I will be checking them out.

Vrika

Good news that they got investment.

But to me that sounds like an investor just giving them minimum required extra money so that they can release some kind of alpha version for sale.

Nanfoodle

Vrika said:

Good news that they got investment.

But to me that sounds like an investor just giving them minimum required extra money so that they can release some kind of alpha version for sale.

Why pay more then is needed. Never play an Ace when a 2 will do. When they have Alpha 1 done and have their core game done as they have planed. 8000 testers and the investors they let in to play, will be the judge if they deserve more. I hope this long shot plays out. 

BruceYee

Soooo they got $1,000,000?

Sovrath

BruceYee said:

Soooo they got $1,000,000?

Pretty much but it's better than "we lost 6 figures ..."

I should add, I once worked for a company that had a CFO who was very cheap. Personally, I think she was just "cheap" in her regular life but for the business, she was always penny-pinching.

And one day she said to me "if we save x dollars that's a lunch for the company, if we save y dollars that's the Christmas party. And in some ways she was right.

So 1 million dollars is "x amount of months development while they try to get more funding."

And if they get another 1 million then we have that many more again. And every bit they can get brings us closer to an actual release.

Wizardry

Can they deliver a game that is better than what we already have in the market that is all that matters to me.IMO 99% not likely,not even as good as.

You don't have to be a huge 30-50 zone game to be really good.However i feel the yare not going to do any level of size any better than what is already out there.So why should i get excited for same old been there done that?

If you think they can deliver something above and beyond,something special,then sure get excited,i don't see it happening.

Even if i am bored and don't care much for other genres,i still have games i already own and can play endlessly so again there isn't even a need to play something new and old at the same time.