World of Warcraft and League of Legends MMO veteran says his new studio will "likely close" if it's "unable to find a publisher soon" for fantasy MMORPG Ghost: "We're doing everything we can"

News
By published

"I hope you all will have a chance to play Ghost"

Concept art showing flowing mountains in an upcoming MMO codenamed Ghost
(Image credit: Fantastic Pixel Castle)

World of Warcraft and League of Legends MMO veteran Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street says his studio Fantastic Pixel Castle will soon no longer be a first-party NetEase Games studio, and "if we're unable to find a publisher" for upcoming fantasy MMORPG Ghost "soon," then they're probably going to close.

Street – who previously served as World of Warcraft's lead systems designer, lead gameplay designer on League of Legends, as well as vice president and executive producer on Riot Games' mysterious MMO (amongst other things) – unveiled the project, codenamed Ghost, back in 2023. At that point, he clarified that the game was still "early in development," but promised "an epic new MMO." However, it sounds like this is now under threat.

Street shares his thanks to the MMORPG's community and playtesters, as well as the "literally hundreds of people who have given us advice on how to find funding in this absurdly challenging time for our industry." He adds: "I hope you all will have a chance to play Ghost."

Of course, he's also grateful to the team at Fantastic Pixel Castle, who he says "has made a game that we all should be proud of." Not only is it "the best team I have ever worked with," but Street says "the data on our team morale and performance is higher than I have ever seen."

The studio head concludes: "Despite the challenges, the past two years have been the most satisfying of my career."

Here's hoping that a new publisher might be able to step in and help the studio out. Street is definitely not wrong, the "current market environment" for games is rough – you've only got to look at the amount of layoffs we've seen from the likes of Microsoft's gaming division to tell you that, with multiple games canceled earlier this year.

A new FPS game from Romero Games also had its funding pulled back in July, although it later stated that it had been "contacted by several publishers interested in helping us bring the game across the finish line," so hopefully Fantastic Pixel Castle might be able to garner similar interest.

World of Warcraft and League of Legends MMO veteran says he saw Riot and Blizzard "seemingly abandon" approaching development "from a place of humility instead of arrogance."

Catherine Lewis
Catherine Lewis
Deputy News Editor

I'm GamesRadar+'s Deputy News Editor, working alongside the rest of the news team to deliver cool gaming stories that we love. After spending more hours than I can count filling The University of Sheffield's student newspaper with Pokemon and indie game content, and picking up a degree in Journalism Studies, I started my career at GAMINGbible where I worked as a journalist for over a year and a half. I then became TechRadar Gaming's news writer, where I sourced stories and wrote about all sorts of intriguing topics. In my spare time, you're sure to find me on my Nintendo Switch or PS5 playing through story-driven RPGs like Xenoblade Chronicles and Persona 5 Royal, nuzlocking old Pokemon games, or going for a Victory Royale in Fortnite.

You must confirm your public display name before commenting

Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.