It is with a heavy heart that we announce we are closing down Windborne today. First, we want to thank the community, who has been so loyal, patient, and shared kind thoughts and ideas with us along the journey.

We have attempted to secure the needed funding to finish the game in various avenues and unfortunately what was once a not-so-completive market has now been flooded with games of this style. Windborne has been a labor of love for this studio since its inception. We have spent countless hours designing and creating a striking world to share with everyone. We have decided that after much business development around the title with no positive movement in funding that we will be delisting Windborne on Steam.

The community has played the game in its current form over 100,000 hours. The game will still exist in your library to continue to enjoy, explore, and create if you own it. We care very much about our players and the trust they put in us, and we want to provide them with as much value as is possible. Because of that we’re going to do the following things.

1. Every owner of Windborne will receive 5 copies of Windborne in their Steam inventory that they can gift to other players. The game will no longer be available to purchase, but it will continue to work online. Owners can gift the copies to their friends so that they can enjoy the game with others in multiplayer.
   
   
2. Every owner of Windborne Order of the Dragon will additionally receive 3 copies of both Defense Grid 2 Steam Special Edition and 3 complete bundles of Defense Grid: Containment bundle – these copies are giftable or usable as they choose.

Everyone here at HPE thanks you, the community, for continuing to stand by us and for the love you have shown for Windborne. You are a driving force in our continuing desire to make FUN. We still continue to hope that Windborne will make an appearance in the future in its complete form, as we love it very much.



What is Windborne?
Windborne is a sandbox creation game that currently provides players with individual islands, basic quests, crafting, exploration, mining, multiple biomes, multiplayer co-op play, and interaction with interesting creatures.

Why is it being cancelled?
We’ve been trying very hard over the last year to pull together the resources needed to take Windborne farther in its development. We reinvested every dollar earned on Windborne back into the game, but haven’t been able to afford to continue it at the level required to make significant progress. We worked to have a smaller team continue to work on the game, but that also became more costly than we could afford. There have been many near opportunities to partner with others to continue development on Windborne, but they never fully materialized and at this point, it is likely best to recognize that we don’t have the resources to continue development and end our efforts to continue Windborne’s development.

Can we get our money back?
No, there is no money with which to refund players. Every dollar spent on purchasing the game has gone into development of the game and Hidden Path had invested 10 times more money than the game has earned into the development of the game with a hope of future completion and sales. We’re not going to see any return on that as well. The entertainment experience that has been available until now has provided players with over 100,000 hours of play to this point as well.

We care very much about our players and the trust they put in us, and we want to provide them with as much value as is possible. Because of that we’re going to do the following things.

1. Every owner of Windborne will receive 5 copies of Windborne in their Steam inventory that they can gift to other players. The game will no longer be available to purchase, but it will continue to work online. Owners can gift the copies to their friends so that they can enjoy the game with others in multiplayer.
   
   
2. Every owner of Windborne Order of the Dragon will additionally receive 3 copies of both Defense Grid 2 Steam Special Edition and 3 complete bundles of Defense Grid: Containment bundle – these copies are giftable or usable as they choose.

Will you release the code so the community can build, similar to Minecraft? Why?
We will not be releasing the code for the community’s use. The main reason this is not in our plans is that we hope to one day still complete Windborne. We still actively talk to publishers and investors about this game weekly because we love and believe in it so much. If it becomes possible to finish Windborne we will make sure that the community receives finished copies as well.

Why didn’t you tell us sooner that the game would be cancelled, it seems like you knew?
We had conversations in play with potential funders that were moving in very positive directions, so we did not know until recently that we would not be able to finish the game to a level of completion that meets our standards. Once these talks started to move the opposite direction, now, we immediately decided we needed to share all of this with you. Our community is key to the success of our business and we never take that for granted which is why we are telling you everything we know at this moment.

What did you learn about Early Access?
We learned quite a bit going through early access. Early Access also changed tremendously during our development process of Windborne. There were not a lot of cases out there to pull from so it was a “learn as you go” process. First and foremost, we learned that communication is key, and not just communication but very clear and concise communication. Early Access as a means to fund the completion of a game is not something we would advice to anybody. This was not clearly outlined when we entered into EA, it has since been changed to illustrate this.

Why did you use Early Access like kickstarter rather than just doing a Kickstarter?
We didn’t view this as a kickstarter as our product was deliverable in its current form; it just was not at a level that we would like in order to call it complete. We have done a kickstarter in the past and learned that maybe the audience we needed to reach, gamers, didn’t quite live there. When Early Access became and option it seemed to make the most sense to go where the community goes.

Will you finish Windborne in the future?
We would love to finish Windborne in the future! Nothing would make us happier as it is a game this studio has invested a lot of love in.

How much money is needed to finish the game?
There is no black and white answer to this question. It depends on the direction of the game. Do we add in x, y, and z or do we focus on x and maybe add y and z as DLC down the road if the game sells well. There are many other factors that weigh in here too; e.g. self publishing vs. publisher, platform options, etc.

If so, what will you do for the current community?
If we were able to complete Windborne in the future we would make sure that the current community received complete copies of the game as well as any extra perks that the game might possibly offer.

Can we offer free help to finish it now?
Unfortunately, no matter how much free help was offered there are still great costs associated with completing the game, any game.

Will I be getting anything in the future since I did OOTD?
To reiterate the answer above all OOTD purchasers are getting an additional 3 copies of both Defense Grid 2 Steam Special Edition and 3 complete bundles of Defense Grid: Containment bundle – these copies are giftable or usable as they choose. This is in addition to the giftable copies of Windborne we will be giving you as well.