Guardians Of Ember Launches On Steam Early Access, Servers Ablaze

Following a mere 24-hour head start for IndieGoGo backers, scheduled to launch in September, but it is finally here. Players can jump in now and choose one of five classes and five races, hack and slash their way through hordes of enemies, buy a house, go fishing, take on randomized dungeons, take part in arena PvP, and more.

While the final business model has yet to be decided upon, Guardians of Ember is a buy-to-play title for at least the duration of Early Access. You can purchase either the $19.99 Mortal Edition, which contains 10 Iron Hero Avatars and 20 Founder Loot Orbs, or the $49.99 Immortal Edition, which contains 10 Iron Hero Avatars, 50 Founder Loot Orbs, an exclusive Saber Tooth mount, an exclusive Angel costume, an exclusive PvP stance, and the "Immortal" title.

The business model is a bit different than we've seen in Overwatch than anything, Guardians of Ember is a buy-to-play MMORPG that will rely primarily on the sale of "Loot Orbs." These Loot Orbs primarily contain exclusive and/or rare cosmetics, such as mounts, costumes, and housing items, but they can also contain items like extra inventory space, experience and loot boosters, and Re-skill Scrolls. Nothing in the Orbs could be considered to be pay-to-win. Furthermore, there will be different types of Loot Orb that will be released over time, similar to how Overwatch releases different types of Loot Crate to coincide with specific events. Players can also purchase additional costume slots, which are purely cosmetic, the ability to turn a piece of gear they have into a costume, and "additional House Sprite slots," but that is about all that the cash shop will offer other than Loot Orbs.

There will be two ways to obtain Loot Orbs. Players will be able to purchase them directly at a rate of $1.00's worth of Frozen Ember, the currency, or pay 100 "Empire Coins" instead. Empire Coins are an in-game currency that is obtained by completing daily achievements. According to Insel Games, if you complete all of your dailies, you can obtain 2000 or more Empire Coins per month, granting you 20 or more Loot Orbs per month without needing to pay for them.

It should also be noted that there have already been server issues. According to Steam Charts, before the latest rush of players, the population hit of peak of 492 concurrent players before the server crashed and the team opted to move the servers to a whole new data center rather than fix the issue on the current server. With any luck, the 922 players in-game at the time of writing won't experience any more server outages, but it remains a distinct possibility.

Guardians of Ember is now available on Steam Early Access for either $19.99 or $49.99, temporarily discounted to $16.99 and $42.49 respectively for the week of launch.