WildStar launched on PC on June 3, 2014, built by Carbine Studios and published by NCSoft. It was a science-fiction MMO set on the planet Nexus, and it scored an 8.0 out of 10 across ten outlets. What happened after launch is the more useful story.
Trailer, via Gamehelper.
Carbine’s Nexus and the Eldan Who Left It Behind
The setup is the game’s strongest asset. Nexus is a fantasy/science-fiction world once ruled by the Eldan, a highly advanced alien race that vanished and left behind technology and secrets for players to dig through. The game was unveiled on August 17, 2011, during Gamescom.
The Eldan built a being called the Genesis Prime through the Nexus Project, hoping to create something perfect. They named her Drusera. She could shape reality as she saw fit, and she seemed kind.
Then they found the flaw: Drusera carried a second, malicious personality the Eldan called the Entity. They tried to kill it with a device called the primal disintegrator. They failed, and the Entity wiped out every Eldan on Nexus. Drusera, unable to save them, imprisoned herself and the Entity with her.
Two Factions, One Planet, No Clean Claim
Before the Eldan died, they had seeded an intergalactic empire. They contacted humans on a planet called Cassus and helped them build a civilization that spanned galaxies under Eldan control.
After their patrons disappeared, most Cassians kept going and built a religion around the vanished Eldan. A splinter faction rebelled against the growing Dominion and fled into the stars. Those rebels became the Exiles, and over the years they picked up other races with grievances against the Cassian Dominion.
Shortly before the game opens, an Exile explorer rediscovers Nexus. Both sides move to claim it. The Exiles want a home. The Dominion see the planet as sacred and treat taking it as a holy obligation.
Neither side gets a clean win. Nexus still holds Drusera, the Entity, and plenty of leftovers from the Nexus Project, mechanical and living.
| Faction | What they want on Nexus | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Exiles | A planet to settle and call home | Rebelled against the Dominion, fled into the stars, gathered other aggrieved races |
| Dominion | To take the world for themselves | See Nexus as sacred, treat the claim as a holy obligation |
Quests, Dungeons, and a Level Cap of 50
The mechanics were standard for the era and executed well. Players made a character and moved it through an open, persistent world, leveling from 1 to 50. Play ran on quests, dungeons, and player versus player combat.
It was a third-person MMO in a science-fiction setting, and it shipped with a subscription. On September 29, 2015, that changed: WildStar went free-to-play. Subscriptions became optional, and paying players became “signature” members with a few bonuses, including increased experience and currency gain.
The free-to-play shift is the pivot point in the game’s life. The source records the change and the date. It does not say why it happened or what it did to the player base. What is clear is that the subscription model did not last.
NCSoft Shuts Carbine Down
On September 6, 2018, NCSoft announced the immediate closure of Carbine Studios and said it “will begin the process of winding WildStar down.” A shutdown date was set for November 28, 2018. The servers went dark that day.
That is the part worth weighing. WildStar did not die of bad reviews. The source does not give a cause for the shutdown, and this paper will not invent one. What the record shows is a game that was well received, changed its business model three years in, and was gone four years after launch.
The 8.0 is a score for what the game was on June 3, 2014, not for what it became. WildStar was a good MMO that ran out of road, and the version players remember is the one that existed before the wind-down began.
Get the Notebook.
The day's best stories and every fresh verdict, in plain English, in your inbox by seven. One email a day, no more.
