Is Earthrise trying to hard to be everything to everyone? Will the launch of Earthrise come too late? I wrote in November that the Earthrise closed beta was coming.

It actually didn’t begin until January 07, 2009. I have been a little bit underwhelmed with the amount of information coming out of Masthead studios.

Masthead Studios has built an impressive list of features in Earthrise but set the bar perhaps a little too high. In a recent interview Masthead Studios’ Atanas Atanasov revealed that this subscription based MMORPG will launch in 2009 but not until the second half. But will it launch then? Atanas says: “We’re not going to release Earthrise before all the promised gameplay features are included.”. They are also still negotiating with a publisher on terms. So it could be delayed even further.

Earthrise Needs to Get Their Horribly Mutated, Robotically Cloned Ducks in a Row

Earthrise has been in development for over three years but I do not see the pieces falling into place quickly enough for a successful and momentum building launch. For example, I wrote earlier that the official Earthrise video trailer was strangely absent. The EarthRise web site is also strangely lacking in official screenshots not updated since June 2008 and no video footage anywhere. The frequently asked questions also provide surprisingly little interesting or useful information. For an example of a game that sets the bar too high and takes too long in development just take a look at Spore.

If Earthrise wants to overcome these challenges they need to pull things together more quickly and get all of their horribly mutated, robotically cloned ducks in a row.