Runestone's 'Alternate' MMOG Seed buried

Seed, an MMOG attempting to bring something a little more unique to the genre by eschewing combat and focussing heavily on role-play, story and characterisation, is shutting down.

In a letter to the community posted on the official website for the game, Seed developer Runestone has revealed it's had to file for bankruptcy.

"For the past two months, I and a few others have attempted to sell a partnership deal to a long list of publishers and MMO companies, trying to raise the capital we needed to finish the game properly, and re-launch it in a form it, and especially you the community, deserve. While we have received a great deal of interest, we have not been able to close a deal. The harsh reality is that we have now officially run out of money, and out of options, and therefore, we cannot pay salaries, rent or hosting fees", Runestone CEO Lars Kroll Kristensen has stated.

He continued: "...it means that the dream of Seed and Runestone is over. It has been a wild, weird ride, full of frustration, triumph, joy, stress and fun, but never boredom. We have all learned incredibly much about game development, the gaming business and MMOs."

Kristensen has added that, for Seed players, it means "you will only be able to play Seed for a very limited time. We will have a little "goodbye" ceremony this Sunday at 20 CEST. I will be there, in the garden, as Magellan. He was the first character online, and he will be the last. I hope some of you guys will be there too, even if the occasion is sad. After that day, the servers may be less stable and reliable, and AD GMs will only be online on their own free time, if at all. Same goes for Runestone Staff."

In the end, he says toward the bottom of the letter, Runestone "simply tried to do too much, with too few funds". However, Seed's fate doesn't appear to have dampened Kristensen's enthusiasm for a non-combat, role play-centric MMO.

"I, for one, would do it all over again, although I would do a great many things differently next time around," he explained. "I am still fully convinced that a role play-centric game is not only a good idea: It's a great idea. It just needs to be better executed. Seed has many of the right qualities for such a game, and I still firmly believe that, given sufficient funding, we could have created a great game. Unfortunately, we will never know."