Camelot Unchained Steam Early Access Launches June 2nd
After over 10 years of development since their initial 2013 Kickstarter, the veil with finally be lifted for a PvP MMORPG that I backed long ago. Camelot Unchained is headed to steam early access on June 2nd. Lead by Mark Jacobs, the mind behind cult classics like Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online, the steam early access launch will happen on Tuesday at 2 p.m. EST. When the game was first announced, I was so excited because at the time, I was starting to get a little tired of Albion Online, the first MMORPG that I ever streamed on my twitch channel. So excited in fact, that I actually became a founder at the $400 level. With that said, the road for Camelot Unchained and the developers at City State Entertainment, has not been a smooth one.
Like its predecessor in Dark Age of Camelot, Camelot Unchained will be a three-faction Tri-realm PvP game. You will be able to choose between the following three realms, as described below:
1). Arthurians: The realm of King Arther strives to be the embodiment of nobility, honesty, and righteous strength. They believe they are destined to save the world, not purely through conquest, but through virtue and greatness of spirit.
2). Tuatha De Danann: The realm of Tuatha De Danann strives to become one with nature. The forest is more than the home of the Tuatha De Dannan; it is their deep-rooted mother, their brood-boughed father, and their protector.
3). Vikings: The realm of the Vikings follows a path of blood and steel. From windswept ice peaks, they await the moment to conquer the lands below. Sigurd the Dragonslayer leads warriors who claim to be the world's most fearless.
As the game is currently still under NDA at the time of this writing, all I will say after playing the game this weekend is that I plan on choosing the Tuatha De Danann realm and a class within it called the Empath. As described on their website, Empaths can Link themself with an ally and enemy, empowering their abilities. Their DOT effects and ability to spend Health on powerful spells make them masters of engagements. They are considered a healing class but also have the ability to deal damage as well. For a listing of all realms and available classes, simply click the hyperlinks above of the names of each of the realms and see the playable classes.
The road to get here for City State Entertainment, the developers has not been an easy one. After being an early backer of the project, I saw a number of missteps that the company ended up taking during the development process, and a few controversial decisions that also angered their early backers from the crowdfunding project.
A short summary of their journey is below:
A). Rebuilding the game "down to the studs": Developers publicly admitted they had to tear down and rebuild major systems of the game, including the custom engine, after years of work. This reset development progress significantly.
B). Massive technical challenges with their custom engine: Camelot Unchained wasn't built on Unreal or Unity — it used a fully custom engine designed to support thousands of players in large-scale RvR battles. This ambition repeatedly caused failed tests, performance issues, and long engineering cycles.
C). Scope creep and overly ambitious Kickstarter promise: The original 2013 Kickstarter promised:
Three full realms
Dozens of classes
Large zones
A deep crafting system
Massive siege warfare
By 2025, the team admitted they had to scale back dramatically because the original scope was not achievable.
D). Years of near silence and lack of visible gameplay: After Beta 1 in 2018, the game went half a decade with almost no real gameplay footage, only concept art and text updates. This reflected slow or stalled development behind the scenes.
E). The controversial detour into Final Stand: Ragnarök: The studio diverted resources to build a second game using the CU engine. Backers saw this as a betrayal, and it caused:
Refund requests
Loss of trust
Further delays to CU itself
This detour is repeatedly cited as a major setback.
F). Layoffs and internal restructuring: In early 2025, Unchained Entertainment underwent widespread layoffs, losing many developers.
Mark Jacobs later said the team had to reassess whether the game was even finishable with the existing engine and foundation.
G). Funding issues and investor changes: Over the years, CU relied on:
Kickstarter funds
Additional crowdfunding
Private investment
Mark Jacobs' own money
The project's long timeline strained finances, leading to investor shifts and the need to re-evaluate development priorities.
H). Repeated delays into early access: Early Access was teased for 2025, then pushed to 2026, with no firm date (until now on June 2nd, 2026). The team stated they must complete "break the build" tests before opening the game more widely.
Given the myriads of issues listed above, Camelot Unchained has a lot of work it needs to do to regain the trust of the backers and the onlookers who have been following the game over the last 10+ years it has been in development. This steam early access, even if the game is still technically an early access title, is still going to be viewed as a launch to the general gaming public no matter how many disclosures they make, and this is where I fear that Camelot Unchained may have some issues. As most MMORPGs have issues with server stability and optimization during a launch, I am sure this will be the case for this game as well. I also worry that being an early access game, they may not have enough content for people, even after 10+ years of development, because of all of the issues they had along the way.
Their website gives us a good glimpse of the potential of the game, with the wide array of classes to choose from, that could eventually make the game a very interesting PvP game, a more modern take on Dark Age of Camelot. It remains to be seen however how it will be received on June 2nd and if it ultimately will be a wise decision or a disaster to launch this early into the process. I wish them the best of luck regardless, and I will be reporting on the game live on my stream on Tuesday, June 2nd, at 2 p.m. EST (assuming they don't push the launch back again which I would not mind personally). Here is hoping that it is well received.
Until next time,
Blackboa