Earth Eternal - Development and Closing

Development and Closing

Development on Earth Eternal began 2006, but would not be announced until January 10, 2007. CEO and Founder of Iron Realms Entertainment (IRE) Matt Mihaly, announced the founding of a sister company of IRE, called Sparkplay Media, with the intention of creating a free MMORPG with the ability to be played through a web browser. Additionally, Earth Eternal’s system would be entirely microtransaction based, which had just begun to be accepted in the West. Mihaly would leave as CEO of IRE to become CEO of Sparkplay Media. Earth Eternal was initially scheduled for release in the summer of 2007, however, as a result of a substantial increase in funding its release was changed to sometime in 2009.

As of April 2009, approximately 40 chapters of the history had been released, along with 22 male and female anthropomorphic races. In addition, the classes were tentatively released.

On February 2, 2009, Sparkplay Media released a new website. The new website contained improved features and more information than the older website, as well as new videos and information.

On May 18, 2009, Earth Eternal announced the beginning of its closed Beta phase. A newsletter was sent out, inviting the recipients to take a brief survey and thereby put themselves in the pre-selection pool of beta testers. '

On July 14, 2009, Sparkplay Media released a Fansite Kit to the public. The fansite kit included Logos, Avatars, Images of the Playable Races, Concept Art, Screen Shots, a Fact Sheet, FAQ, and a Getting Started Guide.

On Oct. 7, 2009, Earth Eternal went into open beta.

On August 8, 2010, Matt Mihaly, CEO of Sparkplay Media, announced that the company was out of funds and all but himself and another unnamed employee had been laid off and that the future of the game was uncertain. Mihaly had been trying to sell Sparkplay Media for the two months prior to the announcement, however he could find no buyers. Sparkplay Media was put up for auction on August 8th, and was purchased on the 17th by TurnOut Ventures.

Earth Eternal remained online after the purchase by TurnOut until August 31st, 2010, where it was shut down due to non-payment to their internet service provider.

When TurnOut Ventures purchased Earth Eternal they inherited Sparkplay Media’s contractual obligations to the Japanese publisher, Sankando, to create a localized version of Earth Eternal for the Japanese market. This Japanese version of Earth Eternal, called Ikimonogatari, was announced on April 11, 2011 and was officially launched on July 5th, 2011.

By July of 2011, American players could once again log into Earth Eternal, now called Earth Eternal Reborn (EER), headed by the developer TurnOut Ventures. This was a limited beta test of the new game client and servers, though some major changes to the game took place. To log in, users had to utilize their Facebook accounts, through which provided the only access to log into Earth Eternal. Additionally, all user characters and data had been deleted before the re-launch of Earth Eternal, much to the dismay of many former players who had spent money on micro transactions for their previous characters. Furthermore, Japanese models were used for the playable characters, appearing quite different than their previously released counterparts. Open Beta for EER was officially started on August 9th, 2011.

On October 31, 2011, the Japanese Earth Eternal (Ikimonogatari) website was taken down, and it was announced on the (North American) Earth Eternal Reborn forms that development had been put on indefinite hold and EER’s development team at TurnOut had been relocated to other projects. Earth Eternal Reborn remained online, though the cash shop had been closed.

On November 20, 2011, the English Earth Eternal Facebook page stated that as of November 24, 2011 at 9pm EST the game would be closing, without a known date if or when the game would be playable again.