Wayfinder is an upcoming massively multiplayer online game that is currently being developed by Airship Syndicate. However, despite its Early Access period coming this summer, the game will not have an Xbox version to go along with its Playstation and PC ports, according to an interview with us. Two of the devs, directors Steve Madureira and AJ LaSaracina, thankfully explained why.
“We are currently evaluating all platforms as we work toward a free to play launch on multiple different platforms in Fall 2023. We focused on the PlayStation family of consoles for Early Access as it helps in development to be working on one platform at a time, allowing the game and tech teams to learn the ropes (remember this is our first game like this!) PlayStation has been incredible partners and excited for the game since the first time we showed it to them so they just made sense. We haven’t forgotten about our Xbox players (the logo is on the website!), and we’re excited to get them into the game later in the year.”
Wayfinder takes place in the world of Evenor, a fantasy setting that has been shattered into pieces by the forces of Chaos. Players must take on the role of heroes known as Wayfinders in order to find a way to both fight the forces of Chaos and repair their world, whether alone or with friends.
Considering the difficulty behind making massive multiplayer games, wanting to make sure that the game can run on one console to start with is a good enough reason for why there won’t be a Wayfinder Xbox port to start with. According to the devs, the game will offer crossplay when it hits its Early Access period and beyond.
“We will support full cross play and cross save support across PlayStation and PC when we hit Early Access. As we add additional consoles later in 2023, they will also be cross play and cross save, with all content delivered the same day regardless of platform.”
Gameplay in Wayfinder is also more skill-based rather than being a normal MMO game. There will be no automatic attacks for the player to do, and any enemy attack is fully capable of being dodged. While team composition is still a thing, the devs also explain that every character is viable and you can play the game solo; teaming up will just be more efficient.
Of course, even if you can play the game solo, it’s geared towards multiplayer as all MMO and MMO-style games are, from Final Fantasy 14 to Destiny. Hopefully, once Early Access comes out and interested players can actually play the game, there will be plenty of people to team up with.
For now, Wayfinders is only coming out for the Playstation family of consoles and PC, though it will also be coming to Xbox consoles and even Nintendo Switch later in its life.
