Dear Fellow Developers,
I am sad to announce that Multiverse Inc., the original founders and developers of the Multiverse Platform, has ceased operations.
The company had an ambitious yet achievable idea, one that for many years was very promising, giving developers the chance to create a game that rivaled big names like World of Warcraft and Second Life.
Unfortunately, as a result of the recent global economic crisis, investor funding for the Platform dried up and the company was no longer able to work on the Platform, with the most recent update being as long as 3 years ago.
Following discussions over the summer of this year, the source code was released to the community in September, under the MIT License. A small team was formed to start work on the Platform, and we have been updating and altering the code ever since, with the aim of carrying on the original dream - to give small-time developers the chance to make something big, and to show the development community that you didn't need to have millions of dollars to make the next World of Warcraft, or the next Eve Online. With the tools we provide, you can be just as good, if not better.
So on behalf of the whole community, and on behalf of those that will hopefully join us in the future, I would like to extend our sincere thanks to CEO Bill Turpin, and the rest of the old Multiverse Inc. Team, for all the years of hard work and money they put in to the Platform. You've made this all possible, and I personally believe that great achievements will come from it. This is the beginning of a new era in the online game development scene, and only through your tireless work and dedication has this been made possible.
Thank you.
Moving on to the present situation, there are a few smaller announcements I would like to make you all aware of.
The first is that the original website (
www.multiverse.net) has been altered to reflect the dissolution of the company. The front has a similar announcement to this one, and gives some information on developer registration and the future of the Platform.
For now however, the new Multiverse website is under construction at
www.multiversemmo.com , and we will use this as our main site for the foreseeable future. From there, you will be able to register for a developer account, access the Marketplace and a lot of other things.
The main purpose of the site, however, will be to attract new developers, and so for now the website will not be particularly useful to those of you who are already developers.
If you have any suggestions as to any additions or changes that could be made to the website, please feel free to fill out the feedback form on the Contact Us page, or leave a message in the newly-added chat room (this can be found at the bottom of each page). All feedback will be considered carefully.
The Developer Wiki is now allowing new registrations, so if you want to make some changes to any articles, you may now do so. If you'd like to create any new pages, please get in contact with us via the previously mentioned channels.
Lastly the open source development team is seriously considering the establishment of a Non Profit Multiverse Software Foundation. This Non Profit organization will manage the official open source project, build the Multiverse community, and much more. We hope to become a 501(c)(3) charitable organization. If approved, the Foundation could accept tax deductible donations that will be invested back into the project to advance the cause. We will be modeling the organization after other open source projects such as Python and Apache. There are a number of great benefits to a non profit Multiverse Software Foundation, but I won't go into it now. Once this is set up, Bill Turpin will transfer ownership of all Intellectual Property (e.g. trademarks) to the Foundation.
We will tell you more about it when appropriate, hopefully in a few months.
If you have any questions regarding anything I've talked about here, or would like to help out in any way, please do not hesitate to get in contact with us using any of the previously mentioned communication channels. You may also contact us via Twitter: @MultiverseMMO.
That's all from me for now, so I would like to wish you all a Happy New Year from all the Multiverse Team!
Tristan Bacon
Marketing and Community Director
The Multiverse Foundation