If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

The Repopulation is about to get repopulated

A conservation effort

Have I ever told you about The Repopulation? *you shake your head, gently, afraid*  The Repopulation [official site] was a science fiction MMO that always smiled. Back in the halcyon days of 2013 it was even considered handsome, rugged, intriguing. It appealed to all those searching for a new Star Wars Galaxies, along with offering en vogue base-building and player-run factions. It swanned into the spotlight, promising a return to the “social aspects” and grand scale of older MMOs like Ultima Online. *Puts on gloves*  But after just one year in early access it began to decay. The two developers – Idea Fabrik and Above and Beyond – had a disagreement over royalties, you see. The servers were shut down, leaving its players out in the cold. And ever since, The Repopulation has been lying in its sarcophagus, quiet, peaceful, and mummified.

Until now.

The Repopulation is coming back to early access within the next few months, say Idea Fabrik, an entire year after the servers went down. This is because they’ve acquired all the necessary rights from their partner, Above and Beyond. You see, *straps you in for some boring explanations*  until now, Above and Beyond have been the designers of the game itself, whereas Idea Fabrik were the providers of the game’s MMO engine, the HeroEngine. When the disagreement about royalties happened, Above and Beyond thought it would be best to rewrite the whole MMO from scratch for Unreal Engine. *Tightens the straps*  They began work on both this and another game, first-person survival Fragmented, also pointedly made using the Unreal Engine *inspects scalpel against the light*  But now all that has been changed again with this new acquisition, meaning they've done almost a year's work porting the MMO from one engine to another for pretty much no reason at all, and the HeroEngine crowd, Idea Fabrik I mean, are gathering their own code priests to resurrect the sci-fi MMO that started the whole thing. Is all that clear?

*you gulp*

Good. It’s been a messy history for something which started out as a promising Kickstarter (promising by 2012’s standards anyway) and at least now the people who actually paid for the game will be able to play once again. Whether they will want to is another story – because it’s going to return in exactly its post-shutdown form, the original studio Above and Beyond have told Massivelyop.com. No improvements, no overhaul, just exactly how it left. Some updates will come from them in the following few months but after that it’s getting handed over to the other gang, whereupon all updates will have to come from the new owners. The important thing is that they say all former players will be able to sign in using their old accounts without a problem.

Which brings us to why you’re here. You see, dear reader, every good doctor knows that, yes, a mummy can be resurrected. But first... it needs a fresh heart.

*the scalpel descends*

Rock Paper Shotgun is the home of PC gaming

Sign in and join us on our journey to discover strange and compelling PC games.

In this article

The Repopulation

Video Game

Related topics
About the Author
Brendan Caldwell avatar

Brendan Caldwell

Former Features Editor

Brendan likes all types of games. To him there is wisdom in Crusader Kings 2, valour in Dark Souls, and tragicomedy in Nidhogg.

Comments