We do our best here to have two-way communication with our community and we've benefited greatly by getting suggestions and feedback on WWII Online since we launched in 2001.

Our current road map was shaped by our community of players- many of whom have strong opinions- and our commitment to WWII Online remains steady.

Recently we provided some insight into the state of the game and the importance for those who have a passion for it to show their support with a subscription. We tried to make the message clear; WWII Online is an important niche MMO that has steadily broken ground for a decade and CRS had dedicated almost 100% of our resources to moving it forward- sometimes in leaps and other times in increments but it isn't meeting the needs of our small studio.

Despite everyone's efforts (staff, players, community volunteers) WWII Online will likely remain a niche game for years to come and in order for CRS to continue developing and supporting it, we must supplement our revenue with additional products.

One Big Bucket

CRS is a tiny studio by almost any measure and revenue earned from all sources goes into a single bucket that pays for staff and operations. From time to time we have helped keep the bucket filled by taking on small project work with government subcontractors and partnering to expand markets. These are necessary diversions in order to continue funding the WWIIOL project which hasn't "broken even" for some time.

Most recently we've taken some of the core technology and content and re-purposed it for a fast-action variant of WWIIOL called, "Rapid Assault". The revenue we hope to earn by releasing this game will be poured into our bucket, ensuring on-going support for WWIIOL. We've also re-written a lot of code that has resulted in Rapid Assault and WWIIOL being separate code bases. This should be important to you for one main reason:

WWIIOL- The Next 10 years

Many might scoff at such a prediction but since we're one of a very small number of MMOs that has been in continuous development and operation for more than 10 years, why not? Over the past few years we've tugged at a few of the strings that hold WWIIOL together. The code base that was written in 1999/2000 has had a few pieces pulled out and re-written but the reality is that code written for PCs AT THE TURN OF THE CENTURY becomes more difficult to build on as the years pass.

When we decided to create RA, we chose not to continue to build on that ancient code in many areas and THAT is what should make you sit up and take note. Many people have wildly speculated that we intend to turn RA into WWIIOL 2.0. That is wrong. In reality, the path forward for major improvements and features for WWIIOL lie in our ability to build off the new RA code base. THAT DOESN'T MEAN GAME PLAY IT MEANS TECHNOLOGY. So while 1.35 and the following updates will be built off the current WWIIOL code base, the real future path of the game lies in leveraging the RA code base.

Does any of this sound like we're abandoning WWIIOL? It shouldn't.

Rapid Assault needs to be successful

So it should be obvious why RA needs to be successful. Firstly we need to keep our bucket full so our development and production team can continue to earn a paycheck. Secondly, the code being written and the new content being added is the foundation for the next generation of WWIIOL.

We recently launched a Kickstarter project to help us fund the final push towards release. We've had on-going beta testing by some dedicated and enthusiastic guys who tell us we're on the right track. We've even had some interest from a large games distribution site about publishing it upon completion.

Anyone with an interest in WWIIOL flavored play in a new, fast action setting can check it out on our website and even free registration for our upcoming stress tests.

If you don't have any interest in RA, that's fine, too. Many of our players prefer more strategy and enjoy the thrill of the hunt more than the kill itself. Understand, though, that our success with RA will directly impact the future of WWIIOL and our ability to commit resources to taking it forward for another 10 years.

TL;DR

CRS needs to supplement it's revenue with other projects to sustain our development and production of WWIIOL. Rapid Assault needs to be successful to bring in that revenue and provide a technology path for the future of WWIIOL. Support RA = Support WWIIOL.

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