In 2013, Hasbro despatched a cease-and-desist letter to the creators of a My Little Pony fangame referred to as Combating is Magic (it started as a fanart undertaking referred to as “Marevel vs. Clopcom”). Whereas the creators, Mane6, accepted the stop and desist, they saved the essential concept and mechanics and used them to create an authentic recreation referred to as Them’s Fightin’ Herds. Lauren Faust, producer of the My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic TV present, agreed to create a brand new solid of hoofed mammal fighters for the sport and got here up with the fundamentals of a setting and story as properly. Following an Indiegogo marketing campaign that raised $586,346, Them’s Fightin’ Herds was launched on Steam in early entry.
Although Them’s Fightin’ Herds left early entry in 2020, its story mode stays incomplete, with solely the primary chapter playable. Within the newest weblog put up, which particulars two DLC characters being launched as a part of its season cross, there is a part on what comes subsequent. “After the Season 1 Move is full,” it says, “we might be ceasing lively improvement on TFH. We are going to nonetheless be capable to launch small patches to deal with game-breaking bugs, however no new content material might be produced. Sadly, that features Story Mode.”
Mane6 continues by saying that content material already produced for the story mode’s second chapter might be labored into an replace that can come concurrently the DLC characters subsequent 12 months, together with a brand new stage. “Story Mode has at all times been an formidable function and one we actually desired to implement. We all know how a lot our followers have been trying ahead to Story Mode chapters, and we hope you perceive how a lot we seemed ahead to engaged on and releasing them.”
There are additionally penalties for a number of the recreation’s authentic backers: “For any excellent objects associated to our authentic Indiegogo crowdfund, this shift in improvement does imply we might want to regulate a few of our initially deliberate perks. Extra data on this might be shared within the coming weeks by way of e-mail and on our Indiegogo channel.”
In response, gamers have begun leaving destructive opinions on Steam. Whereas Them’s Fightin’ Herds has 89% optimistic opinions general, solely 33% of opinions from the final month have been optimistic.