The sandbox MMO DreamWorld is shutting down, a mere three months after its early access launch on Steam. The game, which initially raised nearly $65,000 on Kickstarter in 2021, struggled to gain traction, reaching an all-time peak of just 56 concurrent players according to SteamDB.
Development of DreamWorld, an ambitious project aiming for millions of players on a single shared world, was backed by startup investor Y Combinator. However, even before its March 10 launch, the game faced significant criticism. A deep dive during its post-Kickstarter alpha testing period described the project as a "giant fiasco," citing a lack of development experience, allegations of stolen or improperly credited assets, poorly secured servers, and an impossibly ambitious scope that led some to suspect it was a scam.
Upon its release on Steam, user reviews were mixed. While some acknowledged occasional glimmers of promise, the general sentiment echoed Steam user Dekawar's observation: "I do not think this is a scam but it has a ways to go before i would call it a game." The game was priced at $30/£25/€29.
An update on Steam announced that DreamWorld is being retired from Early Access and removed from sale due to the shutdown of its hosted online services. This means online and server-dependent functionality will no longer be available. The developers noted that there are no in-game purchases, premium currency, or paid in-game items requiring further action from players. Refunds for the game itself are subject to Steam's guidelines, while Kickstarter backers are reportedly out of luck.
The shutdown process itself has been marked by disarray, mirroring some of the issues that plagued the game's development. Users in the DreamWorld Discord reported that account servers went down last week, preventing new account creation, changes, or recovery, even though the game remained playable. According to a Discord moderator, some of DreamWorld's leadership were unaware of the shutdown announcement until they were notified. The shutdown notice itself was the first Steam update for the game since its launch, aside from a small patch released shortly after its early access debut.