[23:05:12.50] ANNOUNCE NEWS #624
[23:05:12.50] Date: 8/8/2016 at 19:48
[23:05:12.50] From: Sarapis
[23:05:12.50] To  : Everyone
[23:05:12.50] Subj: The end of Midkemia Online
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] To all players of Midkemia Online
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] When Midkemia Online launched in 2009, we did so in the hopes of opening a MUD that, like our other MUDs, would measure its lifespan in decades. For various reasons, MKO has had, and I think youll generally agree, a somewhat rocky existence, full of both ups and downs.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] Unlike our other MUDs, MKO isnt based on original intellectual property, and as we approach the annual renewal date and payment required in order to continue using the Midkemia license each year, we evaluate whether we can justify paying it. MKO has been losing money consistently for some time now, and weve decided to end our licensing arrangement with Raymond E. Feist and Steven Abrams, the owners of the Midkemia property.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] The Dread have won, and theres no Pug to stop them, sadly. We will be shutting Midkemia down permanently on Friday, September 9th at 11:59 pm GMT.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] I know this comes as a major disappointing to all of you, and we feel similarly, believe me. It is, however, a reality of using licensed IP. We can essentially keep our other MUDs alive indefinitely by scaling staff costs if necessary, but the license fee combined with MKOs already low earnings just makes it too expensive.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] Heres what you need to know in a nutshell:
[23:05:12.50] "        Friday, September 9th, 11:59 GMT  Midkemia Online shuts down forever.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] "        Its no longer possible to spend real money on MKO.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] "        All MKO Iron Elite packages are cancelled, and well be refunding the current month to all subscribers.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] "        Characters who were active in the past 60 days will get ~100% of their character value for retirement (HELP RETIREMENT) and transfer to another of the IRE games. There will be no minimum character value to retire characters in MKO going forward.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] "        Characters not active within the past 60 days, but active within the past 6 months will be eligible for ~75% of their character value for retirement.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] "        Characters inactive for more than 6 months are eligible for the normal 50% retirement value.
[23:05:12.50]
[23:05:12.50] "        You MUST retire your character by Wednesday, September 7th at 11:59 pm GMT to ensure we have a chance to approve your retirement, which is a manual process. Any characters not retired by then risk not being able to take advantage of retirement.
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51] "        You will very shortly have access to all or most of the skills and abilities in the game. We thought that since MKO will only be around for another month, itd be nice to just open up everything to everyone. You can also consider any PK rules gone now as well.
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51] "        Please direct to me at matt@ironrealms.com and Ill personally get back to you as soon as I can with an answer. I expect there will be a lot of emails, so apologies if I cant get to it immediately.
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51] This is not a happy announcement to have to make, especially knowing how let down some of you will be. I hope you can understand why its necessary though, and that youll find a home in another IRE game.
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51] Therell be a forum thread opened about this very soon where Ill be an active participant, btw.
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51] Best,
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51] Matt Mihály
[23:05:12.51] CEO, Iron Realms Entertainment
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51]
[23:05:12.51] Penned by my hand on the 1st of Rodec, in the year 93.