It’s a unique experience relaunching a game that was shut down years ago. Navigating that rough road can be deeply rewarding, and forLife is Feudal: MMO, one of the critical steps on the journey is its return to Steam. It hasn’t all been smooth sailing getting to this point, with theMMORPG’s subscription model drawing controversy.
The journeyLife is Feudal: MMOhas had can be characterized by twists and turns. First launched in 2016 by developer BitBox and publisher Xsolla, the game went free-to-play in 2019 before shutting down in 2021. It relaunched with a new publisher at Long Tale Games, exclusively on their LTG Multiverse platform. The relaunch came with a return to the subscription model, at an eye-popping $20 per month. Now, that price is coming down andLife is Feudal: MMOis available on Steam again. Game Rant spoke withLife is Feudal: MMOproducer Mikhail Goshkadera about the game’s revitalization, future, and that subscription price.
Life is Feudal: MMO - Five Bucks Cheaper
Setting the game’s price point at $20 a month was controversial, to say the least. Combined with a new team helming the project,Life is Feudal: MMOfans expressed a lot of trepidationover the high monthly fee. This is something that Long Tale listened to, said Goshkadera, which many fans might agree is a good sign.
This is something where we have to hold our hands up and admit that we got wrong. 20 USD was too much, so we’ve reduced the cost by a minimum of 25%, with further reductions if the player buys multiple months and also based on country-specific pricing. This means that the new maximum cost for the game will be 15 USD per month.
The reason for returning from F2P to subscription, according to Goshkadera, was to combat the“pay-to-win” dynamicsthat emerged in the game’s later years. The subscription provides all players with the various paid features that existed in the game’s last years with BitBox, evening the playing field for players.
The original shuttering ofLife is Feudal: MMOcame down to many reasons, but for fans, one of the biggest issues was the profitability, and unpopularity of a pay-to-win approach. It wasn’t the game the developers wanted, nor the game players wanted.
We know that, on the face of it, the decision to use a subscription model seems strange…The truth is, with an F2P model, we would likely attract more players, especially in the short term. However, to be sustainable, F2P games often have to turn to monetization strategies that compromise the integrity of the game, either by overpowering the paying players or byunderhanded sales tactics that prey on players' vulnerabilities.
Rebuilding and Returning to Steam
Far from being a surprising decision,Life is Feudal: MMOcoming back toSteamwas always in the cards, says Goshkadera. The delay in doing so was to use the LTG Multiverse launch as something of a relaunch beta, where bugs could be found and the experience could be tinkered with. Even issues like their subscription pricing were discovered and addressed in this period. Pointedly, the team did not want to bring the game back to Steam exactly as it had left, he said.
We did not want to simply relaunch the game in the same state that it shut down as there were a lot of bugs and exploits that plagued the game … On top of that, we’re working on a system for the original owners of the game, and we’re calling it the Balance Restoration Program. This program grants the original owners of the game LiF Coins based on how much they put into the game before it shut down.
Owners of the original release ofLife is Feudal: MMOon Steam will also get an extended free trial. All players will be given seven days to try the game, but those who owned the original get an extra 30 free days, for a total of 37.
The first priority developers had when relaunching the game on LTG Multiverse was to address its bugs and stability issues. A particularly notorious bug in the original release once gave all players GM status, resulting inrolling back of serversfollowing a period of chaos, so addressing those sorts of issues was of critical importance. But, as the patches went on, new content was also added to the game.
Not only did these patches include things like new buildings, but sweeping gameplay experience changes like voice chat and anti-cheat protections. These changes are being implemented by some veterans of the originalLife is Feudal: MMO, new experts in online gaming, and by working closely with the game’s community, said Goshkadera.
Relaunching a game is a unique experience that presents us with a distinct set of challenges…When the original revival announcement was made, we were met with understandably a lot of skepticism. However, we noticed that the early work we did to include the community in our plans, and our subsequent actions have started to prove our intentions to the community. We’ve noticed the mood has improved and the quality of the feedback that we’re getting has grown.
There’s a long history ofgame revitalizations fromFinal Fantasy 14andNo Man’s SkytoCyberpunk 2077. It’s too early to know ifLife is Feudal: MMOwill join those titles in the league of legendary comebacks, but the ways the development team is willing to learn from missteps, working with players, and revising the gameplay experience is a step in the right direction.
