Atlas, the pirate-themed, open-world survival MMO that was announced atThe Game Awards 2018, is causing confusion and frustration among gamers and streamers due to a series of launch delays.
Atlas, from the studio behindARK: Survival Evolved, was supposed to launch on December 13. It generated a lot of hype due to its comparisons to Rare’sSea of Thieves, with its reveal trailer at The Game Awards featuring pirate ships, naval combat, and mythical creatures.
Unfortunately,Atlashas been delayed a few times since then. On December 19, tens of thousands of viewers were watching a countdown timer on a Twitch livestream in anticipation of the Atlas release, but once the clock hit zero,nothing happened. Studio Wildcard, under the name Grapeshot Games, then said that the game was again delayed.
The studio scrambled to getAtlasout in one way or another, and decided to launch a “special branch” of the game specifically for content creators on December 21. Progress in playing this version ofAtlaswould not be saved, which is not something that streamers would be excited about.
In a “what do you expect?” moment, Studio Wildcard againdelayedthe launch ofAtlasfor streamers.
We're still working on a build. We will let you know when we have something more concrete, we think it will take at least 5 hours. Check back in the morning for another update.
— ATLAS (@sailtheatlas)June 22, 2025
Several hours later, the studio was finally able to push out the Streamer Branch ofAtlas, allowing content creators to finally startstreaming on Twitchand giving gamers their first real look of the MMO. Studio Wildcard then moved on to working on the Early Access version, which will open upAtlasto the rest of the community.
We're going to be working on the Early Access release candidate now. Thanks guys! We hope you enjoy the streams. We'll be watching 👀
Delays have become a normal part of video game development, as studios often decide to hold back the release of their projects to make sure that they are complete and working properly. However, the successive delays ofAtlashave resulted in massive frustration for gamers because of how Studio Wildcard has handled them.
Instead of promising just days of delays and then failing to meet the promised dates several times, it might have been better if the studio pushed back theAtlaslaunch until after the holidays to give the developers ample time to complete the project. WithAtlasalready drawing criticism before its launch, the pirate MMO may already be sunk before it has even set sail.
