Albion Online’s development has been quite the rollercoaster. From delayed testing periods to multiple major revamps of core gameplay, the backers of the game have been waiting quite a while for their journey in this particular sandbox to begin. Starting on July 17th for high-end Founders, and July 19 for everyone else, the wait is finally over.
One of the more interesting features of Albion Online is it’s player-driven economy. Everything, even drops, are essentially crafted by players. The black market is how the game achieves that mechanically: Players will take their crafted items to the black market vendor in the capital and sell them to the market boss, and then he essentially “redistributes” those items to the factions to become drops in combat. It will be very interesting to see how enterprising players try to manipulate these item sink mechanics and inflation to reap massive profits. I fully expect the ways in which players break these mechanics to be chaotic and hilarious.
“Developed by Sandbox Interactive, fantasy MMORPG Albion Online has officially arrived on PC, Mac and Linux, bringing with it a community of dedicated MMO fans. Kicking off their adventures with a clean slate after the beta server wipe, Legendary Founder and Legendary Starter Pack owners have already begun taking their first steps in the sprawling land of Albion, staking their claim on the untamed wilds and free markets therein. Epic Founders and Starters will be the next group to enter the fray, joining Albion’s servers on July 18th at 13:00 UTC, followed by Veteran Founders and Starters on July 19th at 13:00 UTC. Can’t wait to start forging out on your own adventure? Download the client and grab a Legendary Starter Pack to dive in right away!”
The developers held an AMA over the weekend, revealing lots of interesting details about the creation of Albion Online. This included the revelation that the game has surpassed $10,000,000 in total funding.
