Perihelion Interactive’s The Mandate is a Kickstarter project that was funded back in late 2013 to the tune of $701,010. The last update for the game, from the developers, was posted back on April 11th, 2017. The developers apologized to their fans and said that they would be hosting a Q&A about the future of the game and the roadmap ahead, but backers are still waiting… five months later.
The galactic space sim was originally scheduled to launch at the end of 2014. Three years later and backers are still awaiting updates on the project.
In the post back on April 11th, the developers explained that they had fallen on difficult times and were trying to work out a deal with the publisher, writing…
“In March we went through difficult times, the team size was reduced to only a core team since January, as consequence of the still ongoing negotiations with our publisher about the remaining funding. We have been working on securing more fundings since the end of 2016. It is still a work in progress and we will follow up with you in upcoming developer’s updates when we have managed to close a deal”
“We aim to have a regular update every month. Please remember to direct your comments to the forums instead of the Kickstarter page as this is where we can best get back to you.”
They mentioned that there would be a Q&A and further news on the roadmap, but if you visit the game’s official website, the last update as of the writing of this article is still from five months ago.
Just recently, one of the game’s backers took to a Reddit thread to express their frustrations with the lack of updates and lack of feedback from the developers. They also had a tough time trying to track down the team in order to figure out what was going on. The closest answer was from a 3D environment artist named Greg Mirles, who stated that he hadn’t been paid for his work on The Mandate, nor did he have any contact with the developers in over a year.
Haven’t been with Perihelion in almost a year. They owe me a ton of money. Using my assets I made and they haven’t paid for.
— Greg Mirles [3DArt] (@graggunslinger) September 1, 2017
If you check the forums there hasn’t been any updates from the developers, and some of the more dedicated backers have already begun discussing moving their groups and discussions off to another website. The thread about moving to another website was started back around June, and the last major update was that someone renewed the game’s official web site until August, 2018. However, no further updates or information has been made about the game, and backers have seemingly been left out to dry.
Unfortunately the developers don’t have an easily accessible contact page or press representative, so they couldn’t be reached for comment.
[Update 2/28/2018:] It appears the former CEO of Perihelion Interactive, Ole Herbjørnsen, is now working at Funcom as a senior producer, according to his LinkedIn page.
(Thanks for the update tip Beard)
