Empyrion: Galactic Survival - At least ten cents worth of issues

Empyrion: Galactic Survival, developed by Eleon Game Studios, and now backed by Funcom, is a master class in how to fail upwards. Between the broken promises, memory-holing, poor treatment of workers, disrespect of the community, greed, and outright lies and dishonesty, there's not a single shred of respect I have left for Eleon. I spoke to a number of people from Eleon, both current and former employees, in an effort to get as much information as I could.
Eleon might come after me for this, or they might completely ignore me. I don't really care either way. I just want this stuff out there. You, the now-informed public can make your own decisions.
Like I mention in the video, I have a hell of a lot more information that I'm holding back out of respect for the people who gave me said information. Some of that is heavily implied here. Some of it is speculation even on the part of the people who spoke to me, so I didn't want to relay anything I couldn't get corroboration on. But know that there's a lot more shady stuff that I didn't mention here going on, including some stuff that makes me extremely uncomfortable to even bring up.
Big thanks to Colin for editing this video, he did a spectacular job, and for helping put together the background loop, that was a lot of fun (and yes, it's AI-assisted). Special thanks to everyone who spoke with me, some of you were even respectful and decent people and I wish you the best. Others, you can suck it.

[@RhettsPlay]

Still haven't heard anything from Eleon. But they're doubling and tripling down. Taelyn is being thrown under the bus hard. Don't get mad at him, he allegedly has severe anxiety and depression and is practically abused by Steve. Get mad at Eleon as a whole and Steve in specific. I got more information after this came out but I'm probably not going to touch this topic again.

[@TheKenworthys]

Good vid and good details... I think "scam" is a bit harsh. I have 2K hours in the game and while you are rightly criticizing it's flaws... especially the awefull mess that is the DLC... EGS is a good platform for building and exploring the sci-fi setting in space. It gets plenty of things right and maybe that's why soo many of us keep shaking our heads when Eleon keeps dropping the ball. Truth be told though, I'd love to see another company take the EGS formula and do it right.

[@RhettsPlay]

The key to a good scam is to keep people strung along just enough that you get defenders. If you don't deliver anything, well then everyone knows what you are. But give people just enough to keep them coming back, and you can keep them hooked for a lot longer. It's why companies like Melaleuca or Primerica are still around, or why crypto scams hook people in so easily.

[@TheKenworthys]

@@RhettsPlay OMG Melaleuca! I had a friend try to hook me into that in the 80's. I get what you're saying, though my point is that nothing out there quite scratches the same itch that EGS does... I paid once many years ago and have squeezed every penny out of it... and keep on going. I thought I'd buy the DLC to support the devs, but after seeing what is was I didn't... that's where I'd call it a scam. If they keep doing things like that, then I'd lean more into your argument.

[@RhettsPlay]

@@TheKenworthys The Galacticraft mod for Minecraft does it for me. I tried Space Engineers, it was fun but it's a different experience entirely (and I like Medieval Engis better, which has its own problems). There are a few games out there like EGS, and all of them have the same problems. But none of them have Eleon money.

[@awewhytenow3351]

Wow. I hope you sought legal advice before posting this.

[@RollinShultz]

I bought it last year for ten bucks and I play it, but strangely enough I am unsurprised by the content of this video. It has some terrible mechanics and execution. Their only salvation is the creative building elements of the game because some talented people are working in this area. The other saving feature is the mods. If they are going to play evil games to block mods, I see total failure in their future. I could go back to NMS no problem. They at least keep upping their game. (pun unavoidable)

[@RhettsPlay]

I first discovered the game as a result of No Man's Sky, so it's ironic to have seen the paths both games have taken.

[@anthonygianettino2557]

I gave up on EGS years ago. It's always been trash and I have been very critical of Eleon over the course of playing EGS. I completely agree with everything said here, all of which was in the back of my mind while attempting to enjoy the game. How people can defend this game/Eleon is beyond me.

[@RhettsPlay]

It's bizarre to me that they ever left Early Access. That was the best shield against criticism they had.

[@anthonygianettino2557]

@@RhettsPlay lol 100%. Needless to say I was floored by the announcement of EGS leaving early access. What a joke.

[@jasonroth4829]

Been a few years since i played this. Was frustrated to no end on some of it's mechanics. In the end i went back to Space engineers. The news here doesn't really surprise me. Just reinforced my disdain. Perhaps when or if we get a space engineers 2 i'll head back into this particular genre of games.

[@malrec]

Same for me, I went back to space engineers as well. And then I left that too. Both of these games have some really frustrating game breaking problems.

[@malrec]

I really enjoyed this game for a bit. But it just kind of never worked right. Reforged Eden was a nice run too, but it kind of fell apart for the same reasons the main campaign does. The game just isn't... polished the way it needs to be. And i don't think it never will be.

[@RhettsPlay]

The only way to achieve a level of real polish is to have developers who have a both a deep knowledge of the game's systems and the talent to make positive change. Neither is possible when cycling through employees.

[@malrec]

Speaking of cheesy assets.. if you go into the swamps or jungles you will hear a noise that is literally a guy saying, "Bird call.. Bird call.." in a strange bird sounding voice.

[@GeraldOSteen]

This is... interesting news. I wasn't aware of any of this. I picked up Empyrion years ago but haven't played it much(15.5 hours played and last played in March of 2019). I love space games, and building games, which is why I've been listening to this while working on a new capital ship in Space Engineers. Empyrion always seemed like a potential upgrade to what I've been doing in Space Engineers but I just hadn't really gotten around to it. With this news, I'm not really sure if I want to. I'll investigate further(as one should never trust a single source of information -- no offense), but if this turns out to be accurate, I doubt I'll be playing it any time soon.

[@RhettsPlay]

Good luck investigating, Eleon hates talking. Would love to know what you find out. You're basically guaranteed to get banned from any of their forums if you start asking questions, too.

[@GeraldOSteen]

@@RhettsPlay Well, as you stated in the video; if you get many similar reports from different entities, it lends legitimacy to the claim. If Eleon can't be trusted to provide answers, then the historical record provided by Internet -- considering the relative permanence of the medium -- may have to suffice.

[@RhettsPlay]

@@GeraldOSteen Not sure what records you're looking for, but best of luck.

[@MichaelWellsGoldsboro]

@@GeraldOSteen I said Funcom is CCP, I got banned - you're right. Say anything against funcom/tencent/ccp you catch a ban as soon as Taylen wakes up and sees it.