Hello,
Let’s clear some doubts you may be having.
No, it’s on hold, we already went through a similar period starting around June 2021 and ending around November 2022/Early 2023 where I didn’t do any work on MR due to working on another personal project.
Here’s the development update from that time: https://web.archive.org/web/20231211055739/https://forums.mankindreborn.com/threads/development-update-22.3/
The game is at a stage that it requires a lot of capital, time, and a senior-level team to properly move through production, which I have none at the moment. I’ve been grinding like a madman since late 2022 till March 2024 to get the game to a playable state and while I did achieve that goal, the rest of the work left is just too much for me at this time.
The 2024 video was the culmination of all the love put into the project with hopes of kicking off conversations post-GDC to see if we could get the ball rolling with external help, sadly the same thing that happened before kept happening, big people were impressed and wanted to collaborate with me, but they were more interested in seeing what other things I could do with my time and experience, instead of MR.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1Xiw0hH6pE
Every content creator I approached brushed off the game and ignored all requests, even when it was just small conversations regarding the game, while a small horror game I did in 3 days in 2020 went viral and is still getting millions of views from big youtubers posting new gameplay videos, and till this day I’m still receiving publishing/collaboration opportunities from that.
Sadly there is no money or opportunities in this niche and this is exacerbated due to the current state of the gaming industry, after having a conversation with Steven Sharif during GDC and seeing that even with millions of self-funded money and probably the best MMO talent in this industry, it was a big uphill battle just to get the game out there. I also had a long conversation with Marko regarding FoM and he expressed the difficulties of the behind the scenes and just how much of a commercial failure the game was, even during its peak years.