Wuppertal-based development studio SilentFuture has taken over the online science-fiction role-playing game “Earthrise”, and is already working on an overhaul.

Shut down by developer Masthead in February of 2012, the sandbox MMORPG is receiving a new background story from SilentFuture with the corresponding facelift as well as essential improvements in both gameplay and technology. The relaunch is planned for the fourth quarter of 2012.

SilentFuture CEO Daniel Schemann explains: “With Earthrise, we’ve taken over an MMO with enormous potential for development. That’s why we started revamping Earthrise earlier this month together with a team of experienced programmers. First we intend to address known issues in design and technology, during which we will be focusing on fundamental factors such as network and server performance. But we won’t be neglecting the story and the gameplay, either. Our goal is to present players a gaming experience in the near future which is as exciting as it is varied!”

Stay tuned for more updates.

We have some unfortunate news for Earthrise players. Masthead Studios has announced that the servers will be shutdown today, i.e on February 9th.

It’s been exactly one year after the game launched, and they’ve released a statement which explains the reasons for the shutdown.

“One year after the launch of the game, we have decided to stop the Earthrise servers. Earthrise was released too early and did not meet the expectations of its fans” said Atanas Atanasov, Director of Masthead Studios.

“We did our best to revive the game in 2011, but the time was not enough to keep up with the user requirements. There is a huge interest in high quality open world sandbox MMORPGs, unfortunately the big publishers do not show any interest in the genre.

“It is unfortunate that low budget companies like ours are trying to bring innovativeness in the already saturated MMO market. I hope that one day an independent studio will be able to release the long anticipated open world sandbox MMO, which everyone is talking about, but no one is making.

“We tried, but did not succeed. We would like to apologize to those who were disappointed from Earthrise and to thank everyone who supported us during the years.”

Seems like tough going for these guys. The free to play version of Earthrise could be released this year, if there is a significant interest in the game.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Masthead Studios announced today that Earthrise is removing the monthly fee for everyone who has already bought the game. The changes will come into effect starting December 1, 2011. In addition, the company announced that they are transitioning Earthrise to a free to play model in the beginning of the next year.
“We decided to let all our players unlimited gaming experience until we all are satisfied with the experience in our game. At the moment Earthrise features one of the best visuals, content, and gameplay of all sci-fi MMOs on the market. However it is missing polish and has annoyances that spoil the fun in the game. We are learning from our experience and that is why we will remove monthly charges until we bring the game to a quality state that is satisfactory to us and our players”, said Atanas Atanasov, CEO of Masthead Studios.
The company also announced that after reaching their quality goals, they will change the business model to free-to-play. According to Atanasov: “The free-to-play model will offer convenience for players, it will not be „pay to win” with items that ruin the balance of the game”.

We reviewed Earthrise and found it to be addictive. You can check the full review here.

Masthead Studioannounced the release of new major patch to its MMO ,Earthrise. It will include a means of transportation, using mountable vehicles with a unique design. The new hoovers will be obtained by the players from certain quests, player craft or purchase from in-game vendors.

The physics model of Earthrise gives different options to use the new vehicles. Drifts and jumps give the possibility to create awesome stunts, while the explorers will love the new speed they gain to discover the new places in the beautiful world of Enterra.

Masthead studios’ game designers also unleashed large number of strong monsters, which will provide a better challenge to the players, but will also provide greater rewards for defeating them.

“The vehicles are more fun than we expected and they were very well accepted by the gamers, who tested them in our test servers. That is why we plan to build racing tracks in some zones in the near future”, commented Atanas Atanasov, producer of Earthrise and director of Masthead Studios.

Masthead have announced the reduction of the game client and monthly subscription prices. The company decided to lower the price of game client by 60% starting 5th Aug 2011. It will cost 12 Euro for EU players and $14 for Non-EU players.

The monthly subscription fees will also be reduced. Customers, who subscribe for 6-month period will pay only $8,33 (or 7,66 Euro) per month. The new monthly fees will come into effect 27th Jul 2011

“We decided to lower the game price based on the feedback, which we received from our players. We determined that a big flow of new customers would greatly improve the in-game economics and would also make Earthrise a lot more fun for both new and old members”, commented Atanas Atanasov, producer of Earthrise and director of Masthead Studios.

Masthead Studios announced today the release of the first major expansion to its MMORPG, Earthrise. The new content was released on June 13, 2011 and will grant players the access to Territorial War areas and content. The new patch will also greatly improve the performance of the client, and will also provide a big netcode optimization.

“We worked very hard to improve our game. The new expansion is a result of not only the team effort, but also of our close communication with our players, we implemented their best suggestions in the patch,”

 commented Atanas Atanasov, producer of Earthrise and director of Masthead Studios. He also noted that the new expansion comes very soon after the company’s decision to reduce the price of the game by nearly 40%.

The company also decided to reactivate all game accounts and give them 10 days of free play.

Masthead Studios today released its expanded development roadmap detailing upgrades and enhancements that will soon be implemented within its MMORPG, Earthrise.

New features for integration in April and May of 2011 include:

• Resurrection mechanics – The first feature chosen in February by the Earthrise community as part of the “Choose your game feature” official forum.
• Quest hints on the minimap – Players will have a clear indicator on the minimap as to where they need to go to work on their quest task.
• Parties will share battle points, levels of contribution and karma from a killed enemy.
• Item and vehicle painting – Crafters will be able to produce paint and sell/give it to other players so they can personalize their armor, weapons and vehicles.
• Guild diplomacy – Guilds will be able to declare war on other guilds and build allies. Guilds at war with each other will be flagged red and the affiliation of their members will not change if they kill each other. Guilds that are allies with other guilds will be considered one entity and all mechanics will work as if they were one guild.

Additional enhancements include:

• Improved chat window with customizable tabs, font and messages.
• Friends/ignore list.
• Improvements to the monster AI.
• Force attack toggle on and off.
• Resurrection points will have an affiliation.
• Inverse kinematics of the main characters.
• Improved shadows.
• Continued client and server performance improvements.

“We are very excited about the new items that we are currently finalizing, and appreciate all of the constructive feedback that we consistently receive from our dedicated community,” said Atanas Atanasov, producer of Earthrise and director of Masthead Studios. “We will continue to seek player input to conduct future developments and could not be more energized about the future of Earthrise.”

Here’s some info on Earthrise:

“Earthriseis a post-apocalyptic, sci-fi MMORPG set in the distant future. Featuring a unique skill-based advancement system and player-driven economy, as well as extensive, meaningful player-vs.-player combat, Earthrise gives players countless options to forge their destiny through its sandbox-style game mechanics.”

Masthead Studios, a leading independent developer of MMOs, announced today the first step in the implementation of its master development roadmap with the addition of exploration rewards to its MMORPG, Earthrise.
Players of Earthrise will now be able to salvage materials and use them for either crafting or personal advantage, adding increased benefit from exploration and practical knowledge of the world. This update also features a significant Earthrise patch which addresses many game issues such as reducing the server lag, keybinding options and game design balance. You can read full patch notes here.
“As we continue to meet our roadmap goals for Earthrise, we are excited to offer players new and exciting features,” said Atanas Atanasov, producer of Earthrise and director of Masthead Studios. “We are actively taking player feedback and requests into consideration for future releases, and have extensive developments planned for completion in the next few months, including the addition of territorial conquests and player crafted vehicles.”

We recently reviewed the game. You can check that out here.

When I got my review code for Earthrise,  was very excited. I immediately downloaded and installed the game and started playing it. From the very first moment, the game gripped me and immersed me. It seemed I would finally find an MMO that was good enough to give fierce competition to the legendary World of Warcraft. The world of Earthrise was beautifully constructed, with the city of Sal Vitas, Exodus Island and The Nest being my favourite areas in the game. Climbing the social ladder was a gratifying process, character progressions was deep, and Player vs Player was definitely one of the highlights of the game.

The world of Earthrise is huge…

Earthrise is a very deep game. It’s combat tends to shift towards the shooter genre sometimes, but the overall gameplay is very RPG-centric. The gives us freedom on almost everything. Firstly, there are no classes in Earthrise. You get the freedom to develop your character in any way you want to- side with any of the forces at any given time, switch from one specialization to another… it’s all up to you. The character progression is basically interlinked with combat and crafting skills.

You also have the freedom to customize your weapons and armour. You can change it’s look, change some of it’s parts. Basically, everything in Earthrise can be bought or sold- you never get awesome weapons, armours or upgrades at the end of a boss battle or a dungeon. This also means that the game has its own economy, which you have to build. You have to buy everything, and almost everything you buy is customizable.This leads to what is called “Crafting” in the game. Crafting is extremely fun. You can assemble entirely new weapons with the equipment you buy. While this technique can get extremely difficult to master, it produces gratifying results. I spent a lot of hours creating my own equipment with all the stuff I had bought or gather throughout the game.

Another great addition in the game is Player vs Player. The PvP mechanics in Earthrise are heavily interlinked with the in-game economy and itemization in an enormous open world. Players have to cooperate with one each other so that they can coordinate and acquire crafting stations. They  also have to conquer bases to gain access to better crafting options and resources, and to participate in story based missions.

… and beautiful.

What is most impressive about this game, though, is the world. The world of Earthrise is literally huge. It took me hours and hours on end to explore every nook and cranny of the world, and I still don’t think I’ve explored the world thoroughly enough. I think it’s just one more reason for me to keep coming back to play Earthrise.

The world and its inhabitants are really well developed, with rich, deep back stories that make the world ever more believable and immersive. The world and the history the developers have created here feels like a lot of time has been spent on it, and I would like to commend Masthead for this feat.

The story of the game, though, is pretty standard stuff. While it is rather well presented, and immersive enough to keep us thinking about what will happen next, it’s not any different from other cliched post apocalyptic stories we have seen in other games. You definitely expect something better from an RPG, especially one that has such a well developed world and characters. The visuals also aren’t perfectly polished. There are some jagged corners, bland textures, pop-ins and other minor hiccups that might annoy some gamers.

Overall, Earthrise is a really addictive and immersive game. The amount of freedom it offers, and the complexity and depth of its gameplay will definitely attract all RPG fans. The world is really well developed. I think Masthead studios have done a great job with finally delivering an MMO after a long time that is actually worth playing.

This game was reviewed on the PC.