We’ve received word from an anonymous source that Perpetual Entertainment, developers of Gods and Heroes and Star Trek Online, will dissolve in the near future.
The remnants of the company have been acquired by a major independent game developer, which will purchase Star Trek Online and Perpetual’s game platform assets. It’s unknown whether Gods and Heroes will be purchased, but the leadership has already offered certain members of the team a position in the new company, working on the Star Trek Online team. The majority of the Gods and Heroes team will be laid off, so the game’s future doesn’t seem bright.
Phone calls to Perpetual were not immediately returned.
Last month, Perpetual laid off 40 employees from the Gods and Heroes team.
Update: Our sister site WarCry is reporting that Perpetual will not be acquired by another company but will instead function under new investors.
Update 2: Chris McKibbin, Co-Founder of Perpetual, released a statement on the Gods and Heroes community site:
oyal and faithful community members and Beta testers, thank you for your support, help, and understanding during the Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising development process.
The development team established some very lofty and ambitious goals when the initial work was started on Gods & Heroes. Recently, we took a step back to evaluate the competitive landscape, the game’s current state, and the overall goals for our organization. And while we are truly proud of and pleased with what we have created in Gods & Heroes, we also realize that achieving the level of quality and polish that we are committed to will take a significant investment.
The Perpetual team is faced with a unique challenge of simultaneously developing both Gods & Heroes and Star Trek Online in addition to growing our Online Game Platform business. After assessing all of Perpetual’s opportunities, we have made the decision to put the development of Gods & Heroes on indefinite hold.
I want to express my overwhelming gratitude to the community, engineers, designers, artists, animators, and the game services team for the support and effort that has gone into Gods & Heroes.
Moving forward, we’re shifting our collective focus, resources and development efforts to Perpetual’s Platform Services division and Star Trek Online, thereby ensuring that the game lives up to the high level of expectation set by the dedicated Star Trek fan base.
Again, I would personally like to thank all of the Gods & Heroes supporters who have been with us from the beginning. Hopefully, your continued support will be as valuable to our future endeavors as it was with Gods & Heroes..
Vade in pace,
Chris McKibbin
Published: Oct 9, 2007 09:55 pm