Population Zero – A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? A Bad MMO?

Was Population Zero too ambitious for its own good? Or was it generally just.. a really bad MMO? Honestly, I’m going to go ahead here and claim the latter, as not only was the game overrun with bugs, but there were so many core mechanics that just made the game unenjoyable for players.
Which is a shame, considering there was actually quite a bit of hype when I did my first video on it a couple months ago – the video in specific going on to garner over 130,000 views.

Now I’m not one to take Steam reviews too seriously. People leave negative reviews all the time – but 30% positive reviews in the last 30 days is pretty terrible, I’m not gonna lie, and 60% overall? Yikes.
Should we give them a pass for being in Early Access though? Absolutely not. Early Access should not be a label we allow game devs to throw around to justify a terrible, rushed or broken product.
Yet taking a look, you can see that Enplex Games, the indie devs behind Population Zero are charging players $30 for the game.
I haven’t played very much of the game – I tried it out when it first became available and it was too buggy for me to really invest any additional time into but this game is in no way worth the $30 price tag attached to it.
I feel like games like this are what give indie devs and by association, other MMOs that are being developed by indie devs that actually care like the team behind Pantheon or Project Gorgon a bad name.

On the Steam page they mention that the game is “near the finishing line” but honestly, if this is what we have to expect of a complete product, I’m certain its name is going to be – wait, no, actually, after taking a look at the Steam charts for the game we can see a grand total of 1 player playing.
I know some of you guys were making fun of its name being a self-fulfilling prophecy.. but it turns out you were all right. Its name was, in fact, a self-fulfilling prophecy. There are – quite literally – nobody playing the game at all. After only a couple months of being online the game is actually completely dead.
“RIP Population Zero” is the most accurate title I could’ve thought up for this video.

Although just because the game is dead right now doesn’t mean it’ll remain dead, right?
There are plenty of games that had terrible launches that still refuse to die, have a hard working team, and end up with something truly remarkable. And while I don’t think Population Zero will achieve this level of greatness, I do think they could potentially salvage the game.
And I feel like they’re going to go about doing exactly what I’m guessing is the only way to save it – and that is take the money people spent, and convert to a free-to-play business model.
Because let’s be real here: With ratings like that, with a playerbase as.. well, absent as is evident right now, how much money will they actually make in the long-term? How sustainable is this? How will they continue to develop the game?
They won’t, unless they find an alternate source of income. And going free-to-play will offer them that alternate method with which to continue to fund the game.
Honestly, I feel as though this game should have been free from the get-go as what I witnessed and what a lot of people I spoke to experienced was not indicative of a premium title, even for Early Access.

Enplex have their work cut out for them if they want to come back from this. Too often have indie devs appeared after successful Kickstarter campaigns, claiming everything the player wants.
And you know what? In all honesty, bugs aside, issues with the core game aside, Population Zero is a damn fine looking game aesthetically, but if they don’t make a change that will actually resonate with players – this will be the end for them.
And for any money players invested into the game if they didn’t already issue refunds, which I’m sure quite a few did.
Ultimately, this MMO is still scheduled to release next year, but if their Discord is anything to go off of – their announcement that there is no information on “future patches” or any kind of “future content” in any capacity is disconcerting.

We’ll wait and see what happens with Population Zero going into the future, but it’s looking pretty bleak, honestly.