Shroud Of The Avatar's Raised Over $3 Million

There's an awful lot of money floating around out there. Richard Garriott's determined return to the world of RPGs with Shroud Of The Avatar: Forsaken Virtues has now raised over $3m, with an epic $1.1m having been tacked on after the successful Kickstartering of $1.9m. (Spotted by Massively.) Would anyone like to crowdfund a holiday for me?

Garriott's cheekily named project is due as soon as March, which seems astonishingly soon - last April's Kickstarter pitched it for October 2014. While they insist it's not an MMO, it is online, a "shared world RPG" they call it. Which might be just for me, since that's my ideal sweet spot for games - I'm happy to have other humans improve the AI of the NPCs trundling about inside my game, but they can bloody well not get involved in my fun.

The game already had a playable couple of days for backers of the $45 level, and is due another - Release 2 - this week, likely the 24th to the 26th. Release 3 is due Feb 20-22nd, and then an on-going early access type thing happens around March 20th. You can still get on board with these by buying the game at the $45 tier, which is likely the reason such huge funding has poured in post Kickstarter. You need to create an account, then you can buy it here.

You can see 25 minutes of the game running here, to get an idea of what it's all about.