For the 2nd time in its history the Ryzom MMORPG is having financial difficulties yet again and is facing closure within weeks unless a buyer steps up again to purchase the floundering MMO.

What went wrong with this unique French MMO title? Frankly the most recent developer to buy it did jack & squat short of bug fixes and updating the home page. Last we checked MMO’s are not a case of you build or buy it with zero advertising or improvements and “they will come”. This isn’t Field of Dreams folks!

As with the previous auction there was a group of players that pooled over 170 K€ together in a bid to make Ryzom an open-source community run MMO. Given another chance they may be able to pull it off this time around.

Ryzom is going to pass through a few uncertain days/weeks, a second time. Our efforts to move Ryzom forward didn’t get the expected repercussions and today as I speak, while the game continues to run and to be supported, the company behind its development - Gameforge France SARL, located in Paris - is lacking the funds to keep going. For those who’ve known the Nevrax times and went through the transitory period in last December, the same legal procedure of “liquidation judiciaire” has been put in place yesterday. This means that while the appointed liquidator will do what it takes to close the company, potential buyers may show up to take over the game Ryzom. If nobody shows up, the servers will be shut down in less than 3 weeks at liquidator’s request.

Source: Official Ryzom Forums