This is Blade and Sorcery, one of the most popular Virtual Reality (VR) fighting games on the market - and unfortunately it is dying this year. Today we will look at the reasons behind this decision for the developers to end support, what this game signifies to the community, and what the future holds for the VR industry.
🎧 I highly recommend watching this video with headphones 🎧
For more information on the 1.0 Update and what it means for Blade and Sorcery, you can read this post from the developers:
store.steampowered.com/news/a...
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Music Credits:
Karl Casey @ White Bat Audio
Blade and Sorcery's FINAL Update | The End of VR Titan
Hey, Baron from Warpfrog here! Thanks for making this video, Dizzy. I remember you asking about that stuff, so it's cool to see the video now, and thanks for including the context form our chat. Yeah after 5 years WIP it's mad to think of a world without B&S active development! You said it in the video, but to reiterate, 1.0 marks the point that we consider the game "done" but it doesn't mean we would never touch it again as there will surely be patches and so forth, but it would be considered the last major update. After this point any updates we do would be for fixing or stabilizing the game instead of adding content, so there would be no more heavy handed changes that would break mods going forward, etc. This means hopefully 1.0 (or 1.2, 1.2, whatever) will bet he best shape the game can be in for new players coming into the game and for modders/regular players who can mod without worrying about the next update breaking their mods. In the past, updates have usually been new features added to the game engine or new content. With 1.0 we wanted to finish with a bang, so the 1.0 update is like a new game dropping on top of the old game engine. From a studio / marketing / team sanity perspective it's completely nuts and why it's taking so long to finish, but we really, really wanted to make this one special for the final major update. 😄 What I really wanted to comment on though, is for anyone wondering why not keep developing B&S forever because there is so much more that could be added (which is the gift/curse of the game being a sandbox simulation!). The behind-the-scenes is that we have really hit a wall with Thunder Road, which is what we use to make B&S. Kospy was a first time rookie developer when he started coding B&S, and then we added a bunch of other devs contributing to the code, so after 5 years of crazy spaghetti code it has become a huge pain to work with Thunder Road and even changing or adding the smallest thing takes FOREVER to do. You change one thing and the game breaks in ten other ways, so you dev something for one day and then spend 10 days fixing the thing that broke. This basically means we hit a productivity ceiling with Thunder Road, so we would love to move on to Thunder Road 2 (for our sanity if nothing else!), and make a new game on this lovely engine which will be so much faster and more pleasant, and it will raise the ceiling on what we can achieve. It's a bit like how games go Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim instead of just adding infinite expansion packs or updates to Morrowind. They are all RPGs in the same world but sometimes you gotta brush off the canvas so to go higher on the next game with the experience you learned on the last game. If you are unfamiliar with how game development works or what I mean by "spaghetti code", here is a visual example - smartgrowth.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/street-grids.jpg If you look at the city planning and roads layout in places like Tunis or Paris, these are places where civilization had roads grow organically around the population as the city grew over many centuries. But compared to New York which is a more modern city, there was all the knowledge and foresight of modern city planning at the time, so the layout is a nice and clean grid style. So in any city you can ultimately get to where you wanna go, but in Tunis you are going go through a maze of streets and backroads first. This would be like ThunderRoad! So with ThunderRoad 2 we would have all the benefit of 5 years development in B&S and a chance to rewrite with less spaghetti code and iron out some long nagging issues. This means development of game 2 can be faster, more efficient and more ambitious. Cheers, everyone!
Thanks so much, Baron! I wouldn't have been able to make this video with out you and your awesome team. You've done a great service to the VR community. Can't wait to see what you guys cook up in the future.
Hello baron, now I play blade and sorcery nomad on quest 2. Will the graphics be better in the new version?
can you pls make blade and sorcery nomad cross-buy? I don't wanna buy it again for pcvr
This gerenally made cry this is probably favorite vr game and what got me into vr into the first place. This is one of those games that no matter how far down the gutter it goes will always have a very special place in Mt heart and I will always come back too with same happiness and eager to play as the very first time i played thank you warp frog for this game. Proving you don't need a battle pass or any such things that all you need is a good delvpoer team that wants to make a game somebody out enjoys so they can have fun I would have happily dropped 100 bucks for whatever the first build of the game I played was easily. Thank you so much.
Hey Baron, we've spoken before on reddit about the state of the game and adding new animations. I recall you telling me that there are people on the team with a HEMA background, and while you all love sword fighting, you didn't want to put in the resources required to add more fighting animations. To this day, I still think that is a huge mistake. The game, as impressive as it is, lacks real progressive challenge. Once you learn the counters to the AI's limited moveset, the power fantasy is largely broken. While I'm excited to see what crystal hunt brings to the table, I can't help but feel all that work on a skill tree will be wasted when there's nothing challenging enough to warrant all these new abilities. It seems like it's too late to add in what I would have considered a basic complete experience (AI that can wield two handed weapons, dagger animations, more attack options), It's not too late to add explicit mod support for custom AI animations and behaviors. This isn't new content but is instead new back-end functionality, and could be delivered in an update post 1.0. This would allow modders to "hold down the fort" and add in these features that are very clearly missing from a game all about medieval weapon fighting. It would also be nice if modders could add custom spells to enemy spellcasters. Right now, every difficulty and AI mod simply speeds up the animations and makes the AI dodge endlessly, which shows that the modding system is lacking severely in this regard. I hope I can have fun playing your game again sometime in the future.
What are you talking about? When a game is finished, nothing more is added apart from minor patches. You're acting like this is the first time an early access game has been fully released. The game isn't going to "die". Do new games that come out completely finished with no major content additions die instantly? Additionally, the modding community is going to be more than enough to keep this game fresh for years to come, look at Skyrim.
That is not the point blade and sorcery is like the biggest vr game and the impact iy has had on vr will last or ever also its an inoformational video for those who did not know
@@toeslimelicker What? I know B&S is influential. This guy is acting like he never thought it would stop getting content, which is stupid.
Yeah tought the same thing, very silly of his part... was he expecting the game to be on beta forever? Like wtf?
@@vepixity6349 and this dude actin like other games like hellsplit and battle talent dont exist which are 20 times better than b&s 8:34
Tbf when was the last time an early access vr game actually fully released? We all just forgot that early access isn't supposed to last forever. Got that from habie147 btw
"The dedication of a single mod community is not enough to keep a game alive." You've never played skyrim, have you? with thus being the last major update, there's no longer any fear of mods becoming outdated. I'd imagine that this is just the start for all the modders out there.
Or Ark
@@weylinkrentz8481or terraria, which is like the 12th or 11th most sold game of all time
Team Fortress 2 (I know TF2 is only mostly dead and not ALL dead but still I think it counts for this example)
@@Left4Cake mostly dead, is somewhat alive. With all dead, well there's usually only one thing you can do with all dead.
I would also like to bring up Fallout 4 aswell, the modding community is still very much alive there
Skyrim has been supported entirely by modders for about 8 years now and its community is still thriving so i dont see why blade and sorcery couldn't be the same
Sadly blade and sorcery has slowed down immensely with mods, unless alot of old modders come back modding is long past its peak and is only getting the hodge podge made in 3 hour mods.
Well, as long as i can use MMP and outer rim, I'm happy. Main stays in my loadorder
@@ConcernedPmGhost good chance those will get updated, outer rim may get a update just nothing new
@@MrMutedhacker sadly, aiming with blasters or using halberds is pain, because I'm left-handed.
@@ConcernedPmGhostSame but eventually after using them, right handed the weird feeling goes away
What? The game isn't going to die. It's still going to get more patches, just not as significant. The roadmap has stated that after the 1.0 release, there could be “dlcs and or major extensions.”
While I understand your skepticism, please see the linked article in the description where the developers describe the 1.0 release as the final update. You may also reach out to the Baron as I did for confirmation, he explicitly provided this info to me for this video.
@@dizdimension the article that came out last year? and had already been talked about a lot? It's mainly a clickbait title to get more people to click the video
Hopeful they keep fixing nomad I can barley play on outpost without it crashing
@@dizdimensionfunny how you're wrong, the baron's stated a few times there'll be more patches, and its even in his comment you pinned. you smoking something or what?
The game isn’t dying, they released an unfinished product and unlike ubisoft, finished it.
This news was released in October last year, there’s been information released since then. Also, ending major development after the full release of a game is pretty normal. It’s not like development is fully ending, either. The roadmap states that there could be major updates and DLC
Isn't that what happens when a singleplayer game is done? No major giant updates? A new game? I mean what else is there to add?! Did rdr2 get a buncha major updates every week after release?
Many of the early access games in the modern day never leave their "early access" stage. Additionally, Red Dead 2 did receive numerous post-release content updates (mostly for Online).
@@dizdimension I understand that most games just stay early access forever basically, but it felt kinda played up, like its never happened before. I meant singleplayer rdr2 when mentioning it, and it only strengthens my point. Multiplayer games (rdr2 online) are still updated long after release and singleplayer games (rdr2 story) usually fully finish development eventually. (Unless there are microtransactions) I hope we can both learn from eachothers views and have there not be any bad blood between us.
@@dizdimension wait holdup hello im back. in the discord roadmap it says: "After final 1.0 release DLC(s) and/or major extension(s)" so the video is just straight up a lie??
@@dizdimension And those games that never leave their early access phase and doing so either due to incompetence, feature creep, greed, or all of it combined.
@@Fredrick_Turneryes it is false and clickbait
B&S is amazing to me, I always go back to it more than any other vr game. When I take breaks from it and come back I'm blown away by the mods that have come out for it. It's kinda like skyrim, a staple of gaming in its own right
B&S is also very great when i need to let go of some steam after a stressful day
I have no doubt the modding community will be able to keep it going for a good amount of time I am very looking forward to 1.0
Not really the modding is quite limited with this game compared to something like Skyrim and also people have kind of stopped modding it for good reason honestly the game is just boring like you can only kill the same basic stupid enemies so much
such a famous game like blade and sorcery, even after the devs quit, would still be more than alive, the game will be at the mercy of the modders, which is what basically keeps the game alive even now
Modder and game dev here - this won't kill BaS. If anything, it'll part ways for a new age of modding, since old code will no longer deprecate. There'll be more time for 1.0 modders to create community documentation for modding tools and make it significantly easier for new modders to get into scripting. Blade and sorcery, for the longest time, isn't entirely a game - as a sandbox this open to modding, it's also an engine of its own. I'm sure there'll be plenty of mods for it in the future. Hell, the game is in a place at the moment where someone could build an entire RPG using the features supplied, if given the time and motivation. Crystal hunt will finally bring BaS from a sandbox to a game, and it's a welcomed update on my behalf. Good things can't last forever, and I'm looking forward to seeing what Warpfrog and the modding community have in store for us in the coming years.
Finally I can safely download my mods without fear of them suddenly becoming incompatible because of a new update
I'm kind of okay with this decision. I'm sad that this game's ending, but at the same time, they've made this the best game they possibly could've. They haven't cut any of the things that they promised to deliver, and when they had to dely something, it was openly communicated. Warpfrog's always been a breath of fresh air for the game development space, and even if official updates are stopping, i don't think this game'll ever die out completely. There are so many modders and players dedicated to making the game better, that I think I, as well as others, will keep playing until the game gets taken off the store.
The game isn’t ending…that implies its getting pulled from the market
The game is not ending or coming off the store it’s just getting a second game mode called crystal hunt which will be an rpg/adventure game mode with a bunch of new stuff
@@DF9000k ik but it's a live service game by nature of how facebook's store works, so eventually it won't be for sale
@@checkpointstudios6419 Maybe not on oculus but it will still be on steam
@@checkpointstudios6419 every game on every platform gets that treatment at some point, it’s nothing new
Personally, I see update 1.0 more like Hopfrog has fulfilled their promises, so they're sending the game off with one massive update to keep everyone occupied for years. Or at least until they make a new combat game IDK. Kind of like what Bonelab was trying to do, but actually functional out the box (sorry SLZ I love you but don't half bake your mod support next time) Edit: removed some of the yapping
Between H3VR and Blade and Sorcery coming slowly to the end of their lifecycles, and Echo VR being shuttered I feel like we're actually seeing the sunsetting of the first major golden age of VR. We will get another golden age of course, and it may even be soon, but it is what it is. All we can really do is pour out our thanks to the amazing developers who have created this iconic pillars of VR experience in the community.
Couldn't agree more. And I loved Echo VR :'(
Saying that the game will "die" is a bit hyperbolic.
bro you should be happy bonelab's latest update was a year ago 💀 the last update we got was literally almost at release
My last VR headset broke 2 years ago and I haven't replaced it. B&S is the 1 VR game I actually miss. It's so fun.
Every cook has to finish their meal...
Hehe nice one 😂
Bro what are you talking about
The 1.0 update is the last update. After that it will die out.
@@Kolsabi nuh uh
@@Singleplayer4 yes it is
@@Kolsabi I was saying “nuh uh” to it dying out, have you ever heard of Skyrim?
Not a live service and done updating? Almost like a finished video game?
Can some one tell me what map this is 8:29 pls is on vv or steam
i really hope it becomes the VR equivalent of Skyrim and people continue to upload mods for years
I think it already has it's more of a Skyrim vr than actual vr Skyrim 😂😂😂
5:48 skyrim contractors fallout 4 fallout 3 fallout new vegas Minecraft Garry's mod Battle Talent all of these games are mostly alive due to modding or have a strong long lasting modding community.
this game changed virtual reality for me forever. its so immersive and its a free roaming game, you can walk and jump around with smooth movement and its just an amazing game all around
I am on a standalone quest vr headset so will this come to blade and sorcery nomad? Sorry if it is an obvious anwer im dumb
6:05 lol attack chicken
I just wished they would bring it to PSVR2 it could be a system seller, something the PSVR really needs. I'm dying to play this game, and I never will be able to cux this ain't ever coming to PSVR2
i heard about something with psvr2 and pc vr mixing in the near future, keep your eye out because you may be able to play it soon
@elijah5573 No, playstation is just thinking about enabling pcvr support for pc users. They aren't mixing at all. Blade and Sorcery is built on an old engine that the team doesn't even use anymore, and the code is a mess apparently, so I really doubt they would ever go through the headache of dealing with all of that again just for another port. Probably a sequal though I bet
@@TurtleMan2023 i worded my comment incorrectly, thats i meant yeah 👍
At least we still have Nomad...
Can somebody tell me what is this map called (8:02)
Games: stop updating Gamers: ded gam lol
Even if they add NOTHING to the game anymore it still wont "die". I hate these type of gamers who count the game " dead" as soon as no more content is added. Think about skyrim, its still a vwry loved game and the only new things are mods.
The game isn't dying and isn't being abandoned, it's just complete!
Single player games don't die, especially games with regular content updates. They just get finished. You don't look at ARC and call it a dead game because it doesn't get truckloads of new content every tear
The youtube algorithm has yet to fail me, I've been waiting on a dizzyd upload for the last 4-5 years, I'm glad to see you're still making content man, wonder if you'll do a throwback to some unturned sometime :), thank you for coming back
There's one cooking...
I am really looking forward with what they have planned for Thunder Road 2. If they made Blade and Sorcery from crazy code and stuff, just think of what kind of a titan they will make out of the next game.
Bro if there's one thing people don't play this game for, it's regular updates. The player base will be perfectly fine.
And yet, Blade and Sorcery Nomad has yet to have Crystal Hunt
Games don't "die" when they hit full release.
Damn, every game I bought prior to about 2002 must have been dead as soon as it released. They didn't get any content updates at all, ever.
I remember when we got our games on CD-ROMs, installed and played them as finished product, must sound wild in this age.
5:31 anyone know the name of this map?
Multiplayer Co-op would MAKE this game. (Not PvP that wouldn’t work.)
You underestimate how long a well made game can last. Example: The Fallouts.
Modding is one of the main reasons people play Bonelab the whole game is about the modding
Change the title its not the end and not its final update it will have more just not as big. Just dont spread misinformation
honestly this is an amazing video keep up the good work
B&S is not going to die as long as the community is there it will never die for example: Team fortress 2 titanfall 2 Boneworks and bone lab Thats all i can think of right now but there is more
is outer rim on vr or pc?
Rip Echo arena and combat
it's not dying it's being completed. taking it out of early access isn't the same thing as discontinuing the game
We need the crystal update to save it (The game probably isn’t dying but the crystal update will save it if it is)
I don't think this is really a problem. Developers do have to eventually move on. Hopefully what they do next is just as good. And modders definitely can keep a game alive for a long time.
"The dedication of a single mod community is not enough to keep a game alive." have you heard of garrys mod
this is fearmongering, it won't die, it'll just get smaller updates for a time and will be supported by modders for years from 1.0
You should play and make a video on battle talent vr. It’s on the same level as blade and sorcery in my opinion.
Battle Talent is worthy of taking its place.
Even though I understand your statement in this video, what you said at 8:34 is just wrong. There are so many good games out there like Vail, Battle Talent, Helldivers and so much more that even feel better than Blade & Sorcery...
Battle Talent is suprisingly a better substitute to B&S the base game is absolutely amazing!
God I am PRAYING for psvr2 support before they go… I used to play on pcvr but now I’ve switched headsets I can’t play it anymore.
Welcome to 2024, where a game coming out of Early Access, and being considered "complete" is viewed as "dying". I'm going to sound so damn old here, but there was a time when games were released on physical media, and were just complete at launch. No continued support, feature updates, added weapons or maps. What you got in the box was all you were going to ever get out of that game. Now, we have created this culture of gamers that can't understand that a game can be good, while also not being a live service game supported well beyond its release. It's funny, because it doesn't apply to all games, and you really see it in early access titles. Once a game accomplishes what it set out to be and leaves early access, it should be able to considered complete. Otherwise, it will get tied up in development hell, where feature creep causes the game to never actually releases. Look at Star Citizen for the most glaring example of development hell. Additionally, once you have a solid modding community, the game can go on forever. Look at Skyrim or Arma to see what a healthy modding community can do for game longevity.
It would be so cool to release this game on PS VR 2
when will people realise that single player games CANT die if there’s still one player actively playing it?
As sad as I will be when this game finally dies, i can’t wait for blade and sorcery 2 to come out after
As Skyrim is proof of, you are highly underestimate power of modders.
I can’t wait for their next amazing project my crystal hunt avatar is gonna be op
Bro this game is basically all moding even in its final version it will still be majorly alive
if the updates stop happening that means mods will no longer break from updates. that means it becomes a modder's paradise. i really don't think the game is going to die, it's just entering it's next transformation.
You have clearly never heard of Skyrim, the older Fallout titles, and so many other games that are still popular to this day because of their modding communities. To say that B&S will die just because it’s *potentially* not getting any more major updates (it is completely possible that they might make a DLC or major expansion, as said on the discord) is not a based claim at all.
This game is beautiful, but its held together with spit and prayers. i really cant blame the dev team for packing up and moving to a new engine. ill be buying whatever B&S2 or their next title is tho, theyve won my loyalty that far. and besides, mods will keep this shit going for the next 10 years, mark my words
YOOO IT'S DIZZYD
:P
I bet the next one will not be fragmented like Nomad. Better enemy animations. Maybe even some sort of pairing system that can be activated. I hope the second one starts off with a story mode. But besides upgrading the engine and new animations, I can't really think about what can make this game better. It's already so awesome.
Then DLC had a talk with a dev with HUGE update news… So… what now
So basically after blade and sorcery warp frog will make some of the best vr games like they did before
I disagree with your point regarding mods. A vast majority of games that have stayed alive do so only through mods, even after decades of radio silence from the original devs. Take Star Wars Battlefront 2 by EA, Gmod, and even Minecraft in it’s hiatus’ between updates. I wouldn’t be so quick to assume Blade and Sorcery would die immediately, or even a few years after the final update :)
Me: *Slowly Dies in Confirmation of no Multiplayer for B&S1* As someone who was excited for quite some time for the possibility of non Modded native Multiplayer since U6 or so it is quite sad I won't be able to fiddle with a random NPCs Physics around his left foot while my friend beats it senseless across the head. I mean, with Mods that could be done, but I am not interested in IP sharing neither is the janky Desync all that worth trying out. But I am glad that after all that trouble they went through for a fun game, they finally get to take good long deep breaths of non-spaghetti code for their next project, which I am hopeful means that they will dive like crazy into update/content projects, which ultimately means an even better new game later on.
cant wait to play this when I get VR
Honestly I can’t wait for the skill tree and full nomad scripting release so I can finally make a megapack that has all different elements on it like ice earth water life death ect that’s what I want to make
Your choice of title implies a finality that is quite misleading. Singleplayer games don't "die" when a game fully releases. Now, I too am feeling bittersweet about 1.0, but the future of Warpfrog will be better for it, and B&S is complete. Luckily the titling was not an indication for the video itself, which was great!
People don’t realise this is single player and people will stop playing it just like bonelab
well part of the stuff with vr games is that hey we should make a vr version of this not hey lets make an entirely new game and put it in vr which is y pavlov exists yes it just csgo with more gamemodes but it is fucking amazing for what it is
they said they will still update it after 1.0 for bug fixes. etc
This video is confusing to me Games that have major mod support and are single player, they live pretty much forever In other words, the game won't "Die" rather it's just fully completed I guess this whole video is for the VR crowd mainly, but in the major gaming market, it's a normal thing
Good god it’s about time they released crystal hunt I mean the games showed “crystal hunt coming summer 2023”
I just hope they will make it less CPU dependent and replace FSR1 with LITERALY ANYTHING, FSR1 doesn't do jack shit, what a strange choice for uspalling technology, at least use FSR2.1 so we can mod FSR3 into it or ANYTHING besides FSR1 really...
the 3 best sword play games. Grim Lord, Asgards2 and Blade.
You really nailed that clickbait title AND continued with that pitch until the end. That's sad When the game is finished, nothing else is added except DLCs if team decides (or publisher forces). And when you said that mod can't hold the game alive, it shows that you NEVER played Skyrim and GMod
try the battle talent demo if u like it u can buy the full game its realy fun
Oh, I thought it was being abandoned and was worried. I'm fine with this outcome.
I was the 999th like on this video have a good day Mr 1k like
The game isn’t dying by any means. The fact that you are starting out your video like this is actually crazy. You shouldn’t mislead like this just for clicks my guy. The game is officially releasing, not dying. They will also still update the game with quality of life updates and what not to keep it stable. Plus they are also updating the SDK and more people will make mods. My tip to you would be to not “shit where you eat.” Don’t just make a video saying the game is dying, then expect to also make videos on it when it releases, you will quickly find that people won’t be watching.
Hey there, I appreciate you stopping by giving your honest feedback. The intent of this video is to document and celebrate the work they've done so far and alert people that the game is nearing its end point. I made active efforts in this video to discuss the fact that the game will continue to have a vibrant future with mods. However, I also stated that the advancement of hardware and the lack of dedicated support will cause it to become outcompeted in the modern VR Game industry. That is my opinion. But the information about the developers ceasing to support this game after 1.0 is the truth. You can refer to the official post from the developers in the description or see the Baron's pinned comment on this video. Again, thanks for stopping by and giving your input. I think it's easy to breeze past the important information I discussed when you fixate on the term "dying." I do agree with you in some part though, it may have been more accurate to say that the developers are "sunsetting" the game. But that doesn't clearly communicate the reality of the situation and the departure from their previous support.
Man this game looks so much better on pc then bloody quest 2 lol
It’s not dying the developers are not abandoning it and leaving new features to mods what are you saying it’s dying
I disagree I think with the final release we will get a modders wet dream of playgrounds to adapt. Think of the customised stories we will get, mods will mould this game to whatever they want and that’s exciting. The company has done the correct thing opening up the game so much to modders. Majority of the player base bought this game after seeing a mod and thinking wow. I’m exited to see what the madding community will make, it’s the game that’s even pushing me to want to put time into seeing what I can make. It won’t die it will be born again through the ashes.
I hope that they make the physics what they used to be, the physics have been so janky in the later updates i miss how in u9 back in the day my hand dint faze trhough enemies all the time like it does now when i try to punch them
I think its a bit pessimistic to call a game 'dead' when it does not receive updates... Just because new games come out or hardware changes does not mean that people won't continue to play and enjoy games of the past. How do you think most single player games get finished and released? I understand with multiplayer live service games when updates stop activity and servers die but that is a minority of games...
I feel that this is going to be a Gary’s mod situation
oh wow a game being finished like some games are supposed to be? OH NOOOOOOOOOOOOO. this is stupid, there will ofcourse be patches and they are doing what they're best at *finishing* a product. also a dev myself i understand completing the game and then *finally* getting a new engine to play with. the amount of freedom you get when starting on NEW code is amazing.
To be honest I dont think it will die. You know I still love the most to fire up arena and just create some sweat on my shirt :D There are games like Hell split which has some better mechanics, but in overall I still prefer B&S.
i dont mind it, but then again they could pull a terraria and release like 20+ "final" updates