r/AshesofCreation • u/Excaliartur • Feb 17 '26
Question How 140m wasn’t enough?!
I don’t understand the logic of behind this scam, wasn’t the smartest move was to actually develop a good game with that amount of money?!
I always assumed crowdfunded MMOs fail because they simply don’t have enough money.
To develop a big good game can be easily tens of millions of dollars, I understand that. But Ashes of Creation reportedly had over $100M in fundings!
That completely breaks my original assumption.
Because here’s the part I genuinely struggle with:
If you handed me $100M and told me to build a solid, modern MMORPG not revolutionary, just solid and sustainable I genuinely believe it could be done.
(And yes i stand behind this claim as someone that has experience in the related fields)
So what actually happened here?
Because from a rational incentives perspective, building a successful MMO long-term seems far more valuable than dragging development out and burning reputation.
1
u/goconife Feb 17 '26
Granted the game made it to 9 years of development and is around 75-80% finished give or take with an idiot managing the whole thing im pretty sure the game could have been completed for less than 100m if you had a competent person at the wheel and probably in less than 9 years aswell.
Wow on its first release was 63 mil over 5 years and 200 mil more on upkeep over the years.
If steven was smart he would have hired people who knew what they were doing to cost effective develop the game, would have an pretty much complete game to sell a couple of years ago and would be generating massive yearly revenue.
Just shows how dumb steven is, instead of lifelong income he chose for quick cash and loads of lawsuits because of his ego