Dear Albion Community,
As you might have read in the news, Sandbox Interactive will be joining Stillfront in January 2021. Stillfront consists of a family of game studios that largely work independently, while sharing knowledge and expertise between them to support each other.
For the past eight years, we have been building Albion Online up completely on our own - everything from development, to marketing, translations, customer support has been built up by ourselves. Now that Albion is growing at a massive rate, we realize that being on our own is not always an advantage. There are just too many things we’d have to master, and while we believe no one can develop Albion Online better than we can, there are plenty of areas around the game itself where we could benefit from additional expertise. This is why we decided to join the Stillfront Family. The partnership with Stillfront allows us to remain fully invested in Albion Online and its development, focusing on making the best Sandbox MMORPG experience in the world, while benefiting from Stillfront’s expertise in marketing and publishing to spread the word of Albion Online around the world.
For you, the players, this will mean more people to play with, more capacities for development of patches and updates, and simply more Albion Online as we continue to grow the game over the coming years.
With this ending to 2020, we’re looking forward to a bright future for Albion Online in 2021 and beyond.
Please let us know what questions you have about this in the comments below!
Update:
We've put together a little FAQ on the questions you've had about us joining Stillfront Group for visibility. Please click on the button below to view the options!
FAQ
How does Stillfront Group operate? Why did Sandbox Interactive join them?
Will there be any changes to the overall vision of the game? Will the dev team still have control over the game’s development?
What happens to your business model? Will your stance on micro-transactions change? Will Albion Online transform into a Pay-To-Win game?
As you might have read in the news, Sandbox Interactive will be joining Stillfront in January 2021. Stillfront consists of a family of game studios that largely work independently, while sharing knowledge and expertise between them to support each other.
For the past eight years, we have been building Albion Online up completely on our own - everything from development, to marketing, translations, customer support has been built up by ourselves. Now that Albion is growing at a massive rate, we realize that being on our own is not always an advantage. There are just too many things we’d have to master, and while we believe no one can develop Albion Online better than we can, there are plenty of areas around the game itself where we could benefit from additional expertise. This is why we decided to join the Stillfront Family. The partnership with Stillfront allows us to remain fully invested in Albion Online and its development, focusing on making the best Sandbox MMORPG experience in the world, while benefiting from Stillfront’s expertise in marketing and publishing to spread the word of Albion Online around the world.
For you, the players, this will mean more people to play with, more capacities for development of patches and updates, and simply more Albion Online as we continue to grow the game over the coming years.
With this ending to 2020, we’re looking forward to a bright future for Albion Online in 2021 and beyond.
Please let us know what questions you have about this in the comments below!
- Robin ‘Eltharyon’ Henkys, CEO & The Sandbox Interactive Founder Team
Update:
We've put together a little FAQ on the questions you've had about us joining Stillfront Group for visibility. Please click on the button below to view the options!
Stillfront Group itself only has a small number of people centrally. Their model is based on a hands-off approach where these they look for successful and well-run game studios to acquire and then let them continue what they do best while encouraging them to help each other out where it makes sense - in our case, that would be in marketing. See this interview with Stillfront's COO for some background on their approach.
This is drastically different from how other companies / publishers handle games after they acquire them. We all know how this often turns out. And that's why we did reject offers from those types of companies.
It was very important for us that we have the independence to continue to run the game as before - with exactly the same team and the same core philosophy. That's what made Albion successful in the past and will allow us to take the game even further in the future.
This is drastically different from how other companies / publishers handle games after they acquire them. We all know how this often turns out. And that's why we did reject offers from those types of companies.
It was very important for us that we have the independence to continue to run the game as before - with exactly the same team and the same core philosophy. That's what made Albion successful in the past and will allow us to take the game even further in the future.
There are no plans whatsoever to change Albion Online's game design philosophy, road map or vision for the game.
Sandbox Interactive's staff and management remain unchanged and all the founders of the company will fully stay on board.
We will continue to work on the game exactly as we have done before and, as always, in close collaboration with the community.
Sandbox Interactive's staff and management remain unchanged and all the founders of the company will fully stay on board.
We will continue to work on the game exactly as we have done before and, as always, in close collaboration with the community.
There are no plans at all to change the underlying business model of the game - i.e. premium, gold (for premium or vanity) and vanity items. Our business model is extremely solid, works well and is accepted by the players. It will work just as well on mobile - in particular, given that Albion Online is a cross-platform game.
On top of that, adding "p2w" elements to Albion Online would almost certainly make it less profitable as a business. It does not make business sense to alienate our player. Albion has always been built in close collaboration with the community and a lot of its success is ultimately based on that - having a fair and solid business model is part of that arrangement. There is absolutely no reason to change this.
On top of that, adding "p2w" elements to Albion Online would almost certainly make it less profitable as a business. It does not make business sense to alienate our player. Albion has always been built in close collaboration with the community and a lot of its success is ultimately based on that - having a fair and solid business model is part of that arrangement. There is absolutely no reason to change this.