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"

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.

"I wanted to share the news that Fantastic Pixel Castle's time as a first-party studio within NetEase Games is coming to an end," Street writes on Twitter. "NetEase Games has been very gracious and supportive of looking for another publisher for our game. However, in the current market environment, very few deals are getting made for any game, let alone something on the scale of an MMORPG.

"We're doing everything we can to find a publisher or investor. At the same time, we're encouraging our team members to explore future opportunities and supporting them through the uncertainty," he continues. "If we're unable to find a publisher soon, the reality is that the studio would likely close, and the entire team, leadership included, would be affected."

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."