Ashes of Creation RELEASE TIMELINE

/ @forcegamingyt
Ashes Codex:
ashescodex.com
Ashes of Creation is an open world MMORPG set in a fantasy environment where you can choose different classes and races to adventure through with your friends. Intrepid Studios is the developer behind the game. They’re technically an indie studio, but their creative director Steven Sharif has a clear vision for his video game: Massively Multiplayer Role Playing Game. He wants to put the massive back in MMO. Exploring dungeons, griding for gear, crafting armor/weapons, learning new spells, and competing in large scale PvP battles. High end PvE such as raids will mainly occur in the open world. Bosses will spawn and roam through the land. Are YOU ready to enter the world of Verra?

[@ForceGamingYT]

Great video, curious to see if your projected timeline pans out. From all the games I've followed over the years, its been more often than not things take longer than expected. But of course it's all just estimates at this point. Either way, great job compiling info, see you in 2026 to find out, one way or another ;)

[@willfullyinformed]

For sure, game development does tend to lean later than sooner, especially when they're up in the air with timelines. For whatever it's worth, I came to the same conclusion as well earlier this year on AoC, that it will be about 2 more years, and likely 2026 (sooner than later). This is based on all of their changes over the last 2 years in particular, and their very large content ramp-ups, i.e, systemic changes (UE5 engine, more staff, organization, etc.). Honestly, the "2135", and "I'll be an old man" memes are pretty tiresome, mainly because it's all I read about in the comments about AoC. Majority of complaints and comments seem to mainly come from people who either don't have a pulse on game development/bigger-picture overall, or don't really follow AoC at all. Either way they can take as long as needed to actually/finally bring us all a new and GOOD mmo. Cheers

[@TheCopiumClinic]

Thanks dude! A guy can hope!

[@BRADLIKESPVP]

Potentially hot take, I really hope that once the game is in a good spot, they‘re going to cut a lot of the non-essential content and repackage it into a later Expansion in favor of a quicker release. Otherwise I don‘t see a release before 2027/28 at the earliest.

[@OmegaMegalodon]

In 3 years, the unreal engine will be a much more advanced version and this game will be obsolete by then. From a business perspective, they should hire more people to rush it out before newer games come into the scene. Leverage on A.I. and stuffs to shorten the deadline.

[@meraneethaveeponwararom6067]

Looking into the past unreal engine3,4,5 were 10 years apart. It’s very unlikely ue5 is obsolete in 3 years.

[@PawketsArt]

I love that this video falls in line with my guess as well. I have been saying 2 years from phase 3- I do feel I’m coping because of how I’ve heard others say 3-6 years, but you found the receipts. Great work yet again.

[@iamcerealman102]

Gamers when developers get livable time schedules for their workload:

[@17mcQueen17]

Your content is exemplary for what good content should look like. As always it has been a pleasure to watch. Great info, great editing. Well done!

[@OsirisTheWeary]

I hope you’re right Burns. Two years seems reasonable the way you lay it out. Thanks for the video doc!

[@tortiboy142]

To be fair, the 120$ outcry wqs justified at the time, because in its first iteration, buting into phase 1 for 120$ would not have given you access to consecutive phases (phase 2, 3, beta 1, 2). Because of the outcry they changed it, giving you now access to consecuitive testing phases, which is a better deal than pre-existing bundles

[@hagaiak]

It was all phases access, but no beta access. Then after outrage they added beta as well. I believe the devlog video is still available to confirm that.

[@danceplaylist3481]

I've enjoyed your videos. I'm having fun playing (especially with others) AoC. Thank you for posting.💗🌄💚

[@stickyrubb]

No way that you actually still used this thumbnail instead of the other option, hahaha. Hey, I clicked, so I guess it worked.

[@francisdrake93]

you would have clicked a Doc vid even with a black screen thumbnail! .. I did prefer the other anyway thou..

[@stickyrubb]

​@@francisdrake93You know I would, hehe.

[@Grimasaurus]

I hate to say this, but I do agree with Force on this... there are just so many systems, biomes, etc that still need to be developed that I cannot see it being launched 3 - 5 years away.

[@cmdr_thrudd]

Yeah I don't mind if it takes time to release too. What is the rush. Take time and get right

[@EB-bl6cc]

@@cmdr_thrudd Agreed. There will probably only be 1 ashes of creation-type game in our lifetimes, the ambition of what they're trying is insane, might as well take slightly longer to get it right

[@bobthor9647]

Yes but adjusting our expectations, a lot of things will be ready and playable long before official launch .

[@Athasin]

@@cmdr_thrudd The issue with taking time is that the tech and assets get old when you do. You see it now with the assets they're using from the old UE4 project, they're of noticeably lower quality than the UE5 environment. And what happens when UE6 comes out and they're still 3 years away? Are they gonna do what they did when UE5 released and decided to upgrade the engine?

[@Frothmeister]

This just makes the alpha key an even better deal

[@Dustygoodz]

Great take, I think you’re pretty spot on!

[@TheToledoTrumpton]

If you know anything about scheduling, from a project management perspective then you know the whole estimate is silly. They haven't spent 8 years working on one biome just an indeterminate amount of time within those 8 years! 1. The only thing that matters is the unique programing on each different biome. The biome coding common to all biomes is complete (or as complete as it can be). 2. We can only say that the time it actually takes to do unique development for each biome is less than 8 years, it could be 1 week.. 3. That it will even impact the project depends on how much of that unique coding has to wait on pre-requisite development, and if it is on the critical path (the longest chain of necessarily sequential work through the project). I expect that the unique coding on all remaining biomes will not add up to a year; that 18 developers can work on all 18 biomes simultaneously when the time comes, and that Intrepid are just focusing on stuff that does lie on the critical path, and is pre-requisite to biomes as well as a lot of other things. It makes no sense estimating the project based on biomes. I think Steven has a hard time speaking on this rather nonsensical idea.

[@blueknight8709]

With contacting outside work I hope that their content will work and blend well with the lore of Ashes of Creation.

[@MagicpipeMagnificent]

Perfect timing! Need my copium Drinking Horn full before servers are up!

[@bobthor9647]

Saw Stephen in game flying a walrus on a twitch stream. Cool to see him doing pvp in game

[@shiekoshakuro212]

Hey Burns, i just watched all your Videos over the last 2 Days. Your Content is awesome. Love the Production and Hope you’ll get to do a Season of Bespoke with Intrepid. Ultimately you got me hooked to get in into the Alpha. Im Following Ashes for about 4 Years and i cant believe i will be in Verra on Nov 8th. I could not make out on What Server you are on?! See you in Verra. Greetz Shieko

[@Splincir]

There are two things at work here, delivery of the promised systems and the money needed to do that. If the money runs dry, and it could, and the longer development runs on, they will have to either do more sales or release whatever they have as is. I think when phase 3 goes live and we can see how many delays there are, if any, we should be able to speculate with more confidence on when 1.0 might actually be. As it is now, I'd say 3 years from now is an absolute minimum. I'd be willing to shorten that if when phase 3 comes online, it has systems that are actually fleshed out and beyond this tier 0-1 implementation. The only thing that has any real polish is combat, and even it can be janky. They still feel like they are in heavy systems development, and the thing about systems is they present the most unknowns. There are horror stories in the industry about intended systems and features and how something expected to work ends up causing massive issues and features to be cut or delayed. With the amount of systems work to be done, there is just too much left to chance and you just need time to hammer them out. 1 year is a joke. 2 years is super optimistic. 3 years feels mildly plausible but realistic.

[@JEROBI37]

Keep up the great work brother

[@chucknorris5476]

It actually really bothers me how cool some of the early alpha 2 packs are, and if you bought a voyager pack later you have no access to some of the coolest items in the game despite having the same access lol

[@EB-bl6cc]

I think things will get progressively faster but I still think anything faster than 3 years for a full 1.0 is very optimistic. Gotta remember that this might be the most ambitious game dev project.. _ever_. Finishing the biomes is just the tip of the iceberg, they have to finish allllllll the other systems that the game is promising to have. Which is quite the laundry list. I kinda love them for it, but their scope creep is insane. Making this game is probably 3x the work it takes to make a standard WoW-type MMO.

[@samw.6158]

Enjoying the alpha 2 but the lack of social grouping makes that grind rough. Limiting time I play since wipes are unknown

[@darknstormyknights]

another solid vid mah dood - hope to see ya in game 🍿

[@marioaffenzeller4176]

A Small information for you, but AoC did expand the map one time. Expanding the Scope of the game, as fare we know.

[@stickyrubb]

About the biomes in Alpha 2; I feel like people misinterpret Steven's answer, as it is worded a little vague (as per usual, haha). He said that ALL biomes will be in Alpha 2, because Alpha 2 will be running alongside the Beta's. To me, that means that we will NOT see all biomes in the Alpha 2 time period, but in the Beta time period, on the Alpha 2 servers. I might be wrong and it might not make a big difference, but I thought it was worth pointing out, as these are the things that Steven might get backlash over when the time arrives.

[@88449966]

Still having naive hopes to see AoC go live until I have no time for it "at all" -D

[@MostCoolestName]

look i want the game to succeed and be great but im not gonna lie to myself like a kid waiting for his dream game cause ik it wont be that lol. The game is DEFINITELY years away from releasing and being good. that last bit is obviously an important factor bc theres a very real chance they get pressured by all the supporters and kick starters and release before the game is actually complete, just so the players have something to sink their teeth in AND spend money on to further fund the game and such. unless they secretly have a build of the game which is miles and miles ahead of what we're playing this game needs a lot more time in the oven. the more i talk about this and absorb content about this the more i am reminded of star citizen

[@calleu3982]

Well, its easy to be right about the 2-3 years release from now on, cause no way they will have money for another 5+ thats obvious. So the question is how much of the promissed content will be in the game and I hate to say it, but I dont think it will be much. And it will get demolished because of it, rightfully so. Bring this comment up in 2-3 years 😊

[@shaunrheeder4491]

Love your content, however I'm not sure there's much reliance on a statement about beta from many years ago. We don't know if the beta position may have changed since then. However do enjoy the content as per usual.

[@bobthor9647]

I think we are in a new mmo era where games dont need to be complete , they need to build on success , engage players, and overcome adversity

[@vexillian]

I see you went with the other thumbnail. Lol. Honestly, I still expect Ashes to be a little further out in its release time than the end of 2026. Only reason I say this is because you can't expect what's going to happen from outside sources, like the DDoS attack that happened on Sunday. And because they're taking on such an ambitious project, I also expect lots of delays for them to figure some stuff out, like the 5 hour pushback that happened today. These are pretty small examples, but I think they'll likely vary in size and be numerous. If you can bank on anything, it's that things will always be pushed back and likely never be pushed forward. So once they take 2 steps back, they likely won't be taking any steps forward until another step back comes along. The only thing moving them forward is the natural progress they make each day.

[@strados1090]

Nice video, however, as a backer of both games, I need to step in and ask a question so I can understand, Why did you stated StarCitizen is pay to win? This is an honest question, it seems many youtubers are misinform, tbh It does not bother me, I will continue to be a backer of games that interest me, is my hobby, and most big developers have disappointed year after year, but I have seen this mention too many times not to question it.

[@krakhungames]

I am really enjoying alpha 2 testing, but they have a very long road to get to full release. I think 3 to 5 years is likely unless they run out of money and release early. (the Codex looks awesome)

[@johncrane5001]

Good video bro. Physicians are often wrong though!

[@TheCopiumClinic]

We're always sure and sometimes right.

[@natewagstaff2516]

I very much disagree with the premise that star citizen has no reason to release. The idea that people are willing to spend 700 million just to fund this dream of this game should only indicate that it would make more money once the game is complete. How many people are not paying into star citizen because it's not finished. I have multiple friends who are like this. I'd also like to push back just a little that SC is pay to win. Yes you can pay to get a bigger ship but currently in the meta all the bigger ships just get killed by the smaller ships. The ships that aren't that hard to gain in game and are a fraction of the price. Yes there is some amount of pay to win but it's very much diminishing returns. Once you have a decent solo ship you're pretty much good to go. I'd also like to say most of the ships are in game currently so it's not in the hope that they will one day get to play them. Oh and one more thing. The larger ships are going to require a crew of teammates to play with you some of the biggest will need crews of 20-30 in order to run properly. They'll also be very expensive to manage. So I think that really drives home that it's really not pay to win. My little fighter can avoid a large capital ship pretty easily. In the end maybe I won't be able to kill a capital ship but that's because it's 1 v 30 players that wouldnt be fair. It's going to be capital v capital. And with the introduction to crafting ships built in game will just be straight up better than the ships you can buy in the store. Anyways. Sorry I'm a SC fan who has started to get really interested in Ashes of Creation. I've seen alot of strays get sent to ashes of creation on twitch saying it's a game that will never come out stuff like that so I'm sure you know what it's like to have people misunderstand your fandom.

[@natewagstaff2516]

Oh one other thing SC is running on a pretty fine margin with a development team of about 1200-1300 employees. Whenever their income goes up they reinvest it into the game. Just another reason why they aren't trying to just be in a perpetual alpha.

[@MimePka]

do u still practice as a physician? and wats ur specialty? im a PGY3 IM resident rn waiting for ashes lol

[@Penumbra-AoC]

and another banger

[@AcidGubba]

Small teams are much more efficient in development. When WoW was developed in 6 years, the development team was 20-30 people. Towards the end it grew to 60-70 people. The rest of the team consisted of quest designers, level designers, artists, sound designers and project managers, who all contributed their part to the development but were not classic programmers. In an alpha version that is public, all the basic mechanics should actually be there. In the alpha, you realize the architecture of the world and what should be possible. You shouldn't need 100 hours to test the endgame either, unless there is no endgame. Let's see how long people will continue to believe that everything is OK.

[@danny3120]

Well at the rate this timeline has been accelerating, the year 2026 will be here in a few months. 2024 is almost over and i didn't even notice before i started hearing Mariah Carey everywhere.

[@squatchbigfoot8577]

lol the intro!! i'm thinking Nov 2026 release date, right before the long thanksgiving weekend 😉

[@Athasin]

If not 2027 then 2030, calling it right now.

[@MrKevlarkent]

yea, my estimate is that people underestimate how quickly new biomes can be cranked out once they outsource a lot of that work. but that might just be cope 😶

[@monsiieurmathieu]

dude you're funny asf !!!

[@ThePlinto]

Great intro xD

[@juanjq71]

its better to put out a finished game then a half ass one.

[@Rare-s9y]

Asks for more money after 8 years calling it Alpha-2 wave1 with less than 15% of map + 10% of characters done than proceeds to showcase a login queue that increases in count in 2024 AOC community: Well it can only get better from now on!

[@rjswas]

Cant cure stupid ^yes you, i am talking to you, been playing and testing games for longer than 20 years, never once been paid, normally free to test and get fools that ruin games, it is testing, why the fk would they give you more than 15% of the map for a test, lets just give the whole game away right now....... they put more into the game personally cash wise WAY more than any of us supporters, that actually know shat a test is.

[@hagaiak]

Spoken like someone who's never played an MMO on release. And this is not release, this is alpha testing. Real *alpha* not like Korean MMOs that are already full games that are being republished in the west, and have Alpha just to test the localization efforts.

[@ItsYent]

We gotta stop calling every server issue a “ddos”

[@TyboGames]

but this was a ddos?

[@ItsYent]

@ sure it was.

[@EthanH46]

we/i want to see you streaming please...

[@sticqeno288]

Idk man, I heard it's coming out tomorrow.

[@ccloudleaf]

Shoutout to Force Strategy Gaming, SC2 gamer

[@kokorochin01]

Game will be out by 2026 for sure. Longer than that and it would be a pretty big fail...

[@Ludullu]

Haha, you went with this thumbnail after all.

[@TheCopiumClinic]

Just swapped!

[@sinniver]

10/10

[@XxXVideoVeiwerXxX]

Its funny, force has said he doesn't like being negative, and loves MMOs, but never talks about ashes (or star citizen tbf) but i do find it...odd how when he does make vids on it its always...not really positive. He talks positive about numerous EA games and plays a dozen or few dozen hours then moves on to the next game. Which to me, is odd but i guess that's the modern MMO player nowadays. Prob why i stopped playing them after archage year one.

[@sirbonobo3907]

Lol that Intro hahaha

[@Azhrei776]

This video kept my daughter entertained. She’s 1. Very high praise.

[@akiotatsuki2621]

Too bad they can’t do what Star Citizen is doing and let people play the shitty version it is until it becomes what everyone wants

[@CidoraX]

I feel betrayed on thumbnail choice

[@TheCopiumClinic]

All part of the plan

[@Pallywagz]

🎉

[@Lazy_Tavern]

Triple A content.... I wont put my money on 2026, but I do not belive you are far off!

[@nameundefined4317]

anti bot, anticheat, server lag/desync, combat and pvp need to be flawless on launch or it will be a massive failure

[@EB-bl6cc]

Yep. The biomes are only a small % of the work they have left to do tbh. Still, would love to be wrong

[@boredasbored6274]

Force fed

[@bobthor9647]

I like turtles 🐢 😊

[@Michael_G980]

I am very much looking forward to AoC but also play SC to, I readily disagree with your assessment of SC and p2w. While I will admit anyone that purchases the cheapest starter pack will get owned by anyone that has spent just a few more dollars, the thing is unwanted pvp is not something I have to be constantly concerned about, and I don’t actively seek out pvp either, as well as all ships that are sold for real money are very easily bought for auec, SC’s gold equivalent. Even new ships are made available usually within about 3 or so months to buy in game. Additionally S42 was NEVER scope creep, it has always been part of the original design and development. The scope expansions are all necessary if CIG is wants to have a good game that will last because its original design would never have worked for the long term life of the game.

[@Auld17]

Everyone voted for the other thumbnail, what is this crap?

[@TheCopiumClinic]

All part of the plan. Now the other one is up.

[@OmegaMegalodon]

In 3 years, the unreal engine will be a much more advanced version and this game will be obsolete by then. From a business perspective, they should hire more people to rush it out before newer games come into the scene. Leverage on A.I. and stuffs.

[@obamanizer1463]

DDOS didn't result in servers coming back up... they closed early... be factual or people will remember.

[@qvick3280]

the servers did come back up for around 30 minutes before shutting down for the weekend

[@tonydalimata]

​@@qvick3280 Yes , I got back in ,got from Winstead to lionhold and then the server was shutdown for the weekend, broke my heart :(

[@TheCopiumClinic]

Came up for us in US. Not in EU though.

[@TheMineHackSwe]

UwU

[@morkanz6998]

3 or 4 years away

[@termintot4645]

Nothing better to make your point then attacking another game. SC bad, but AOC good because reasons....

[@MonticueGaming]

He literally says he has nothing against their model and pointed out the fact that sc keeps extending their game scope and ashes has not.