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Thanks, I appreciate the replies.
@Jeremy Reimer: Yeah, I remember reading an early interview or two when it was being hyped up, maybe it was the one you linked even (too long ago to remember). Easy to say in hindsight, but even back then, I remember their answers feeling wishy-washy, but also passionate, and thinking "either they are drilling down hardcore into what would make a good game, or they just have no clue". I guess we maybe found out which it was.
@ChillFlame: Haha. Well, we can't all keep up on the goings on with everybody, I wouldn't begrudge people not knowing about every shadowy individual who keeps their head down and their mouth shut. Which makes what you're saying useful information. Also, you're right that gamers put up with way too much shit in general. Even if Frost Giant ran away with all the money and we never saw a game of any significant quality, I think you could point to worse crowdfunding scams in gaming, to start with. And then there's how far people's tolerance for microtransactions has shifted.
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On April 30 2026 09:52 Turbovolver wrote:
@ChillFlame: Haha. Well, we can't all keep up on the goings on with everybody, I wouldn't begrudge people not knowing about every shadowy individual who keeps their head down and their mouth shut. Which makes what you're saying useful information. Also, you're right that gamers put up with way too much shit in general. Even if Frost Giant ran away with all the money and we never saw a game of any significant quality, I think you could point to worse crowdfunding scams in gaming, to start with. And then there's how far people's tolerance for microtransactions has shifted.
It's not only microtransactions. Online only live service game model that can be shut down any seconds devs want without any explanation, day 1 DLCs, Early Acess abuse, preorders of digital copies.
It's all anti-consumer, and gives no benefit to player whatsoever, and SG has all of it. It's incredible in some way.
You add shit like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormgate/comments/1n6quy3/comment/nc35syj/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button (ranhaosbdha
comment).
It's not exactly a scam game, but it's in the avant-garde of deception.
And most people are still fine with it.
Is it too hard to deduct what's coming up if this behavior becomes a norm?
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Does anybody who still has the game installed know if it's still actually playable? Servers are supposed to shut down today right?
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On April 30 2026 10:58 ChillFlame wrote:Show nested quote +On April 30 2026 09:52 Turbovolver wrote:
@ChillFlame: Haha. Well, we can't all keep up on the goings on with everybody, I wouldn't begrudge people not knowing about every shadowy individual who keeps their head down and their mouth shut. Which makes what you're saying useful information. Also, you're right that gamers put up with way too much shit in general. Even if Frost Giant ran away with all the money and we never saw a game of any significant quality, I think you could point to worse crowdfunding scams in gaming, to start with. And then there's how far people's tolerance for microtransactions has shifted. It's not only microtransactions. Online only live service game model that can be shut down any seconds devs want without any explanation, day 1 DLCs, Early Acess abuse, preorders of digital copies. It's all anti-consumer, and gives no benefit to player whatsoever, and SG has all of it. It's incredible in some way. You add shit like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormgate/comments/1n6quy3/comment/nc35syj/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button (ranhaosbdha comment). It's not exactly a scam game, but it's in the avant-garde of deception. And most people are still fine with it. Is it too hard to deduct what's coming up if this behavior becomes a norm?
I have no idea why people put up with that. I imagined PC gamers are mostly just waiting for the game to be finished/ the first discount on steam. Turns out there are a still many pre-order and bitch later (but then pre-order again) never learn type pc gamers out there
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On April 30 2026 17:20 Harris1st wrote:Show nested quote +On April 30 2026 10:58 ChillFlame wrote:On April 30 2026 09:52 Turbovolver wrote:
@ChillFlame: Haha. Well, we can't all keep up on the goings on with everybody, I wouldn't begrudge people not knowing about every shadowy individual who keeps their head down and their mouth shut. Which makes what you're saying useful information. Also, you're right that gamers put up with way too much shit in general. Even if Frost Giant ran away with all the money and we never saw a game of any significant quality, I think you could point to worse crowdfunding scams in gaming, to start with. And then there's how far people's tolerance for microtransactions has shifted. It's not only microtransactions. Online only live service game model that can be shut down any seconds devs want without any explanation, day 1 DLCs, Early Acess abuse, preorders of digital copies. It's all anti-consumer, and gives no benefit to player whatsoever, and SG has all of it. It's incredible in some way. You add shit like this: https://www.reddit.com/r/Stormgate/comments/1n6quy3/comment/nc35syj/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button (ranhaosbdha comment). It's not exactly a scam game, but it's in the avant-garde of deception. And most people are still fine with it. Is it too hard to deduct what's coming up if this behavior becomes a norm? I have no idea why people put up with that. I imagined PC gamers are mostly just waiting for the game to be finished/ the first discount on steam. Turns out there are a still many pre-order and bitch later (but then pre-order again) never learn type pc gamers out there
Well it came from consoles, as you know.
Back in the day, companies like Microsoft had to estimate how many physical copies they need to ship. That's why they had pre-orders. You pay in advance, and you get a physical copy on release and don't have to wait until they manufacture more.
That makes sense, right? I still wouldn't pay for it, but it has some logic in it.
Turns out, some psycho bastard in a suit figured out guaranteed game for players is a guaranteed money for investors.
This shit should've died right there with Halo or whatever other game Phill Spencer and his undead minions tried to milk.
It makes no sense. It's a digital product, the copies are infinite.
The only reason it exists is to screw you over. That's it.
But it didn't, people were fine it, and now it got worse. Now you ger a barely working game for overprice. All you get is a useless skin for it.
There is a business practice that makes sense -> Corpro bastards abuse it to maximise the revenue -> Consumers are fine with it -> It gets even worse.
The pattern repeats every time. You tolerate this bullshit, it comes back to fuck you over.
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Discord post:
Frost_AustinH "Electron" Role icon, Frost Giant Studios
—
3:26 PM
Update,
Later today StormGate will release a patch that disables the live service Versus and Coop modes, and instead adds offline support to the Campaign, AI Skrimish, and Custom game modes to prepare for the Hathora shutdown.
A few of us have been hard at work adding peer to peer support to the game but the netcode is not quite ready yet -- this means that the update later today will kill multiplayer StormGate for a time -- users will encounter a placeholder error when attempting to join someone's custom game.
I have a strong commitment to deliver proper steam-powered P2P support with ugc map downloading as soon as the code is ready -- it should be hitting the PTR in the coming days.
UGC map makers will be able to develop and test your maps offline-only until that update.
Once peer to peer is squared away it may be possible to bring back an improved version of the versus/coop ladders but no confirmed plans yet.
I figure Tim M has been calculating the least embarrassing way to wrap this thing up since last August at the latest, and it seems like he's found it. I don't know the game UI enough to tell whether they're still hawking MTX, but otherwise this is an honorable enough way to go out.
Frost Giant's operating expenses now are, what, their frostgiant.com and playstormgate.com sites? So next to nothing?
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United Kingdom20344 Posts
Back in the day, companies like Microslop had to estimate how many physical copies they need to ship. That's why they had pre-orders. You pay in advance, and you get a physical copy on release and don't have to wait until they manufacture more.
That makes sense, right? I still wouldn't pay for it, but it has some logic in it.
This wasn't a paid service, you paid the regular price for the game.
You parted with the money a bit earlier, and in return you got a guaranteed physical copy on day 0. People who didn't do this risked being met with no stock, so they would then have to screw around checking other stores or coming back on other days and maybe not get the game for a while.
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Northern Ireland27387 Posts
On May 02 2026 18:28 Cyro wrote:Show nested quote +
Back in the day, companies like Microslop had to estimate how many physical copies they need to ship. That's why they had pre-orders. You pay in advance, and you get a physical copy on release and don't have to wait until they manufacture more.
That makes sense, right? I still wouldn't pay for it, but it has some logic in it.
This wasn't a paid service, you paid the regular price for the game. You parted with the money a bit earlier, and in return you got a guaranteed physical copy on day 0. People who didn't do this risked being met with no stock, so they would then have to screw around checking other stores or coming back on other days and maybe not get the game for a while.
There was a period where it made absolute sense
I’m sure there are other examples, but I definitely remember Modern Warfare 2 being one. CoD4/Modern Warfare 1 ended up being absolutely huge. If you wanted a copy, pre-order was the way. Indeed I did so in the store I worked in, having asked a colleague how many copies were due in.
Even then servers still shit the bed for a day or two, especially day one so myself and my buddies didn’t really massively benefit all that much, but at least we had the game and didn’t have to run around store after store looking for it.
When I say myself and buddies, it was like a good 15-20 of us who’d played together regularly in CoD4, it really was huge
But we were still in an age where digital distribution of the core games themselves hadn’t yet really come to consoles. And partly due to the physical media being the majority of distribution, games may not have been totally bug free but they generally shipped in a good state.
Nowadays really doesn’t make much sense to pre-order, for a variety of reasons but people continue to do it. Genuinely baffles me at this point given how many disastrous launches we’ve had over the years, and that pre-ordering is basically completely redundant, but hey
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On May 02 2026 18:28 Cyro wrote:Show nested quote +
Back in the day, companies like Microslop had to estimate how many physical copies they need to ship. That's why they had pre-orders. You pay in advance, and you get a physical copy on release and don't have to wait until they manufacture more.
That makes sense, right? I still wouldn't pay for it, but it has some logic in it.
This wasn't a paid service, you paid the regular price for the game. You parted with the money a bit earlier, and in return you got a guaranteed physical copy on day 0. People who didn't do this risked being met with no stock, so they would then have to screw around checking other stores or coming back on other days and maybe not get the game for a while.
No it wasn't a paid service, I meant, I'd never pay for a game before I can see it.
You just get the same game for the same price, and you don't have to worry about looking for a copy if they are sold out. Win-win.
But what prevents devs/publishers for taking money if and shipping inferior quality product, or product with missing features, etc?
There's no proper legal basis for this even now. No one stopped Todd from bullshitting everyone with Starfield. Or CDPR with CP77. Some companies tried, like Sony removing CP77 from PSS, but CDPR still got an insane profit.
They just wiggle a bit to avoid being sued for the false advertising, it's extremely easy to do with video games. Just use corpo lingo for marketing. Promise everything, but never explicitly.
See this moon? It's real, you can fly to it. What? It is JPEG and you fly right through it? Welp, JPEGS are real and you can touch it, so you can't sue me, I win.
Pre orders are total bullshit until we get decent regulations. Todd will promise you the moon, and sell you a JPEG.
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It appears the game has gone offline. Campaign still playable after last patch but no multiplayer. Devs want to add peer to peer support but nothing in motion yet.
And for everyone online saying they should sell the source code or whatever and let the community run the project... No... On top of selling it as a propietary as some rumors said they did to game of thrones war for westeros, they also plan on building a second game... Why would they give up their golden goose? Having that tech and systems in place makes a 2nd game much easier to make an cheaper than building another engine from the ground up. Yeah... They're going to keep it close to the chest.
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so how to get a refund? (asking for a friend)
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On May 03 2026 14:55 kAra wrote:
so how to get a refund? (asking for a friend) thats the neat thing.
You dont.
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On May 03 2026 14:03 CicadaSC wrote:
It appears the game has gone offline. Campaign still playable after last patch but no multiplayer. Devs want to add peer to peer support but nothing in motion yet.
And for everyone online saying they should sell the source code or whatever and let the community run the project... No... On top of selling it as a propietary as some rumors said they did to game of thrones war for westeros, they also plan on building a second game... Why would they give up their golden goose? Having that tech and systems in place makes a 2nd game much easier to make an cheaper than building another engine from the ground up. Yeah... They're going to keep it close to the chest. dude the game is dead and has been dead from the start. There is no golden goose to hang on to, just a big turd. The source code has no value.
There will never be a second game.
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I like the idea of stop killing game, but if the game is designed with live service in mind, even if there's an offline service, chances are it's not gonna be a great game
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On May 03 2026 15:44 Gorsameth wrote:Show nested quote +On May 03 2026 14:03 CicadaSC wrote:
It appears the game has gone offline. Campaign still playable after last patch but no multiplayer. Devs want to add peer to peer support but nothing in motion yet.
And for everyone online saying they should sell the source code or whatever and let the community run the project... No... On top of selling it as a propietary as some rumors said they did to game of thrones war for westeros, they also plan on building a second game... Why would they give up their golden goose? Having that tech and systems in place makes a 2nd game much easier to make an cheaper than building another engine from the ground up. Yeah... They're going to keep it close to the chest. dude the game is dead and has been dead from the start. There is no golden goose to hang on to, just a big turd. The source code has no value. There will never be a second game.
There will be a second game once Tim Morten gets funding. And I am hopeful having to do less groundwork on building engine and well- now that they know what DOESNT work they can build something fans love. Instead of trying to replace SC2 they can carve out a niche on a lower budget. Honestly, how about a good tower defense full game? Look what happened to the auto chess mod and tft... I think there is potential.
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On May 03 2026 19:57 CicadaSC wrote:Show nested quote +On May 03 2026 15:44 Gorsameth wrote:On May 03 2026 14:03 CicadaSC wrote:
It appears the game has gone offline. Campaign still playable after last patch but no multiplayer. Devs want to add peer to peer support but nothing in motion yet.
And for everyone online saying they should sell the source code or whatever and let the community run the project... No... On top of selling it as a propietary as some rumors said they did to game of thrones war for westeros, they also plan on building a second game... Why would they give up their golden goose? Having that tech and systems in place makes a 2nd game much easier to make an cheaper than building another engine from the ground up. Yeah... They're going to keep it close to the chest. dude the game is dead and has been dead from the start. There is no golden goose to hang on to, just a big turd. The source code has no value. There will never be a second game. There will be a second game once Tim Morten gets funding. And I am hopeful having to do less groundwork on building engine and well- now that they know what DOESNT work they can build something fans love. Instead of trying to replace SC2 they can carve out a niche on a lower budget. Honestly, how about a good tower defense full game? Look what happened to the auto chess mod and tft... I think there is potential. ...
I know of a beautiful bridge I would love to sell you.
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Northern Ireland27387 Posts
On May 03 2026 19:57 CicadaSC wrote:Show nested quote +On May 03 2026 15:44 Gorsameth wrote:On May 03 2026 14:03 CicadaSC wrote:
It appears the game has gone offline. Campaign still playable after last patch but no multiplayer. Devs want to add peer to peer support but nothing in motion yet.
And for everyone online saying they should sell the source code or whatever and let the community run the project... No... On top of selling it as a propietary as some rumors said they did to game of thrones war for westeros, they also plan on building a second game... Why would they give up their golden goose? Having that tech and systems in place makes a 2nd game much easier to make an cheaper than building another engine from the ground up. Yeah... They're going to keep it close to the chest. dude the game is dead and has been dead from the start. There is no golden goose to hang on to, just a big turd. The source code has no value. There will never be a second game. There will be a second game once Tim Morten gets funding. And I am hopeful having to do less groundwork on building engine and well- now that they know what DOESNT work they can build something fans love. Instead of trying to replace SC2 they can carve out a niche on a lower budget. Honestly, how about a good tower defense full game? Look what happened to the auto chess mod and tft... I think there is potential.
The problem is Morten or the team don’t seem to have the idea.
It’s like they secure funding and then are thinking about what to actually build when they get it
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On May 03 2026 19:57 CicadaSC wrote:Show nested quote +On May 03 2026 15:44 Gorsameth wrote:On May 03 2026 14:03 CicadaSC wrote:
It appears the game has gone offline. Campaign still playable after last patch but no multiplayer. Devs want to add peer to peer support but nothing in motion yet.
And for everyone online saying they should sell the source code or whatever and let the community run the project... No... On top of selling it as a propietary as some rumors said they did to game of thrones war for westeros, they also plan on building a second game... Why would they give up their golden goose? Having that tech and systems in place makes a 2nd game much easier to make an cheaper than building another engine from the ground up. Yeah... They're going to keep it close to the chest. dude the game is dead and has been dead from the start. There is no golden goose to hang on to, just a big turd. The source code has no value. There will never be a second game. There will be a second game once Tim Morten gets funding.
What do you mean "once"?
Tim Morten has been trying to get funding for a second game since August of last year. He went to game conference after game conference, begged and pleaded and tried to bargain, and even asked all of LinkedIn if anyone knew anyone who could give him $5 million to make a second game.
Nothing. Crickets.
The awkward truth is that Frost Giant the company owes Silicon Valley Bank $2 million, and Frost Giant the company has no income and no money and no employees.
How do you think this pitch for investors will go down, exactly?
"Please give us $5 million to make a game, even though we already spent $40 million on our first game, it was a gigantic flop, and now we owe the bank $2 million."
"Wait, where are you going?"
And I am hopeful having to do less groundwork on building engine and well- now that they know what DOESNT work they can build something fans love. Instead of trying to replace SC2 they can carve out a niche on a lower budget. Honestly, how about a good tower defense full game? Look what happened to the auto chess mod and tft... I think there is potential.
You don't need a Frost Giant with negative $2 million in the bank and Unreal 5 and "SnowPlay" to make a tower defense game. You need $0, a copy of Unity or Godot or even GameMaker Studio, and a couple of students with some free time.
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You don't need a Frost Giant with negative $2 million in the bank and Unreal 5 and "SnowPlay" to make a tower defense game. You need $0, a copy of Unity or Godot or even GameMaker Studio, and a couple of students with some free time.
Technically you're right, but to the level I'm talking you absolutely do. To make a moba u need some students like the old dota mods, or to make a autobattler u just need the same thing. But if you want it to hit a certain quality level you need more experienced devs and a proper team with funding. That's how all these genres took off from grass roots projects and billion dollar companies saw potential in them. Riot games is the perfect example with the auto battler. You obviously had tons of mobas. You even had Mechabellun which pretty much came about from Direct Strike. Of all those, I think tower defense could use some love and a budget next. But that might just be me. Idk. Look at even bloons...
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On May 04 2026 14:35 CicadaSC wrote:Show nested quote + You don't need a Frost Giant with negative $2 million in the bank and Unreal 5 and "SnowPlay" to make a tower defense game. You need $0, a copy of Unity or Godot or even GameMaker Studio, and a couple of students with some free time. Technically you're right, but to the level I'm talking you absolutely do. To make a moba u need some students like the old dota mods, or to make a autobattler u just need the same thing. But if you want it to hit a certain quality level you need more experienced devs and a proper team with funding. That's how all these genres took off from grass roots projects and billion dollar companies saw potential in them. Riot games is the perfect example with the auto battler. You obviously had tons of mobas. You even had Mechabellun which pretty much came about from Direct Strike. Of all those, I think tower defense could use some love and a budget next. But that might just be me. Idk. Look at even bloons...
I see where you are coming from and I agree that the tower defense niche/ genre could be more than it is now. But, and this is a BIG but, the Tims are not the ones to do it. They have zero vision and zero talent.
Just look at "The Scouring" which is like what, 1-2 guys with zero millions but vision and talent. Still more successful than the Tims.
https://steamdb.info/charts/?compare=2012510,3338950
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EPT
