Airship Syndicate turns off Wayfinder sales: Are they pulling the plug?

In a recent blog post, Wayfounder developer Airship Syndicate announced they have "turned off new sales of the game" for an indefinite period. The post was not regarding any developmental hitch, but a managerial one - Digital Extremes have now handed over publisher rights of Wayfinder to Airship in earnest.

Digital Extremes had decided to part ways with Wayfinder as a publisher last November, but they had remained the "publisher of record" for the Steam and PlayStation store pages of the game.

These publisher rights and responsibilities now are being handed over to Airship Syndicate, meaning Digital Extremes are divesting from Wayfinder fully.

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Digital Extremes exits Wayfinder, but Airship is determined to keep it "active and vibrant"

The developers are sealing the game off from new buyers temporarily, but this does not mean the game is going down. The cease of Wayfinder sales has more to do with the transfer of property rights than with the state of the game.

The official developer update on this says:

"We have reached an agreement with Digital Extremes to begin the transfer of Wayfinder to Airship in earnest. Until this moment, Digital Extremes has remained the publisher of record on Steam and PlayStation. We now begin the process of transferring those responsibilities to Airship."'

Last year, Digital Extremes made the surprise decision to close its external projects division after the release of Wayfinder Early Access. Airship Syndicate was left without a publisher for a game still in the making but continued to pump out major updates.

Wayfinder's gameplay loop is fashioned after Digital Extremes' flagship looter-shooter MMO-lite, Warframe. With Digital Extreme at the helm as publisher, the game was also designed for a fair free-to-play model akin to Warframe on full release.

After an admittedly rocky Early Access launch, Wayfinder is in a relatively better state. It is behind its initial schedule of a full release, but Airship Syndicate is determined to polish the game and power through.

Over the last few major updates, the game has introduced more story content, reworked Echoes, one of its core progression avenues, and made several improvements to combat - including a lock-on system for melee.

A lot of features are on the cards for the 2024 roadmap leading up to Wayfinder's full release - including a mount system. However, with this temporary maintenance mode in place, these updates will likely not come anytime soon.

The developers are adamant to not have Wayfinder share the same fate as Wildstar - an older cult-classic MMORPG with similar aesthetics. They think that Wayfinder can be "something special, and be around to play forever."

While further updates regarding these can be expected within the next four to six weeks, the game is still fully playable for all Wayfinder founders who bought it on Early Access.