Revelation Online’s Stealth Launch?

As I was catching up on MMORPG news story titles in my feed reader, I noticed that Revelation Online had started Early Access on February 27. For all intents and purposes, this is what we would normally call a game launch. You have to buy a Founder’s Pack to access the game “early,” but supposedly there will be no more character wipes, which sounds a lot like a launch to me. Certainly plenty of other MMORPGs have made a huge deal about this kind of event (eg. ArcheAge).

Revelation Online is one of the MMORPGs that was on my radar for 2017, though I can’t say I’ve seen much of anything to make me want to play it (other than “it’s a new game”). As far as I know, Bhagpuss of Inventory Full is the only person in the MMORPG blogosphere who has commented on it, and those impressions from closed beta made the game sound fairly mediocre.

But since yesterday’s launch, the Twitters and the blogs have been otherwise dead silent about this game. I had to double- and triple-check to make sure that this launch actually happened. Normally after every new MMORPG launch, I see somebody somewhere talk about their experiences on Twitter, or blog about their early impressions, or something along those lines. A new game normally inspires people to write at least a little bit.

Have we as consumers finally reached a line across which we won’t go? Have we decided we won’t pay for Founder’s Packs anymore? Have we declared that we won’t participate in Early Access MMORPG releases as if they’re full launches? Is there hope for getting back to the days when a launch meant a finished product and not the earliest, buggiest version that doesn’t crash immediately?

Or is it that Horizon Zero Dawn completely overshadowed Revelation Online’s soft launch? :)

For myself, I’m perfectly content to wait until Revelation Online’s open beta begins March 6th, which I will be using as a free trial. I anticipate either forgetting to download it or being unimpressed.