Airship Syndicate’s action MMORPG Wayfinder entered early access for PS4, PS5 and PC a few days ago. To say that the release was problematic would be an understatement – many couldn’t even enter the game due to server issues. There were also issues with Founder’s Pack players not getting their items and not receiving enough Runesilver to purchase things.
In a Steam Community post, the developer owned up to issues, stating, “Yesterday sucked. There is no other way to say it. It sucked for people who purchased Founder’s Packs and couldn’t play, and it sucked for us to see players unable to get into the game after believing in us and our vision.
“Early Access isn’t a crutch. It’s a conversation between a studio and the community helping build the game alongside the studio. We said from the start that we’d be transparent and open with the community, and that continues now that we have players entrusting us with their money, and us failing to deliver.”
Though it ran technical tests and betas beforehand, there were “more players every minute than played in our beta each day.” The queue system also quickly failed, and despite implementing fixes to stabilize logins, “those failed as well.” “We ended up having to put a cap on the players on the server, which was less than ideal and resulted in the ‘Maximum Player Limit Reached’ error last night.”
Publisher Digital Extremes also apologized. “We know players have high expectations of DE’s infrastructure to deliver in moments like this, and in this instance, we, as the publisher, fell short. We’re committed to ensuring long-term stability through the early access period. We are thankful for the enthusiasm and interest of our community and for your continued patience as we close in on a permanent solution.”
Login queues are functioning for now, and further optimizations are due in the coming days. As for Founder’s Pack owners not receiving their items, it’s currently a priority (despite affecting a “small portion” of players). The developer asked players to contact support for more details. It’s also revisiting prices of items to ensure they cost 1,000 Runesilver and “retroactively grant the difference for anyone that has paid for any of these weapons.”
Finally, it’s working on “compensating” those who purchased early access, whether they got to play or not.
“Yesterday proved that Wayfinder has an audience, but we must take action to meet the demand that the audience deserves. First and foremost, that involves us fortifying our underlying platform and technology to deliver our vision for an online world for friends. It’s about winning back our player’s trust through actions and not words, and it’s about getting the game into a playable state for all.” Stay tuned for more updates in the meantime.