Today, Austin-based studio Airship Syndicate (Battle Chasers: Night War, Darksiders Genesis, Ruined King: A League of Legends Story) announced a major shift for its online action RPG Wayfinder. The upcoming Echoes update will change the once free-to-play, online-only game to a premium game with a full-fledged offline option.
Joe Madureira, CEO and Creative Director at Airship Syndicate, stated:
To our knowledge, this hasn’t been done before - taking an online-only game fully offline, fundamentally changing all aspects of it. We’re in uncharted territory, and it’s a big risk for Airship to make this change, but it’s one we believe in. We’re incredibly proud of the work our crew has done in such a period of time to make it happen. Our players have loved the world and characters, and with their continued support, we can keep expanding the game in the future.
Airship Syndicate President Ryan Stefanelli said:
We’ve seen a shift in the industry where players are OK paying for a premium title if it means respect for their time and wallets. It's one we prefer ourselves, frankly, and we believe it’ll make the game much easier for people to enjoy. We hope this major change will entice players to come and see what we’ve built with Wayfinder, allowing us to support it long term.
When the Echoes update goes live on May 31st for existing Steam Founders and on June 11 for everyone else on PC, the game will return to Steam Early Access with a pricing of $24.99 (expected to increase upon the launch of version 1.0). At the same time, all in-game monetization will be removed, and any items previously available through microtransactions, including characters, weapons, and armor sets, will now be earnable through gameplay.
The Echoes update also introduces new content to Wayfinder, including a new playable character in Grendel, a new open world area three times larger than before, six new hunts, and more.
As for the PlayStation version, the Echoes update will land on Sony's console later this year. When it does, PS4 support will be discontinued, and all PS4 copies will be upgraded to PS5 at no additional fee. Meanwhile, players can continue accessing Wayfinder as they previously did.
Last but not least, Wayfinder will be released on Xbox Series S and X before the end of the year, which is also when the studio plans to exit early access.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
Follow Wccftech on Google to get more of our news coverage in your feeds.
