Wild West Online is not Red Dead 2 but is neat-lookin'

Haven't we all wanted to be a cowboy? Ah, a lonely life out on the plains, just me, my herd, the big sky, and six men I'd trust with my life: a soldier, a Native American, a cop, a builder, and a biker. Old chum, have yourself a look at Wild West Online [official site], a rootin' tootin' upcoming MMO.

Wicky Wicky Wild Wild West Online was originally headed to Kickstarter then early access. However, after excitable Internauts mistook a screenshot for Red Dead Redemption 2 and brought the game a load of attention, the developers have secured extra funding to skip all that and launch later this year.

On virtual paper, Wicky Wah Wah Online sounds like a great deadly sandbox. Its website talks about a cruel frontier where players can rob, cheat, and kill each other, bandits can form clans, goodies can become deputies and bounty hunters, questers can quest, miners can mine, and farmers can farm. It sounds to me somewhere between EVE Online and Grand Theft Auto Online, possibly because I don't like fantasy and am ignorant of your elfgames.

Wild West Online, Desperado, Rough Rider is set across several biomes of the west, and developers 612 Games do drop cheeky teases of oddity. They mention the world has some "bizarre uncharted places of an 'unknown nature' that curious explorers will be drawn to seek out", which I'd guess is either a splash of weird west or some Westworld gubbins.

The game is due some time in 2017. Following the rush of attention sparked by that case of mistaken identity, 612 say the Wild Wild West Online's original investors have kicked in extra cash and now they're sitting pretty.

"Thanks to this further backing the development team will no longer need to raise additional support via a Kickstarter campaign and has also decided to bypass Steam Early Access to focus on a full launch," 612 said in yesterday's announcement. "In addition Wild West Online will now release with its previous stretch goals in place at launch, including female characters, rich role-playing and social activities such as card games, and localization."

That's the power of gossip!