The Year of Retention: An Update on our Development Plans

Hey everyone! Manu here. It’s been a while since our last devlog entry, and there’s been a lot of internal discussion lately about the direction our future updates are taking. We thought this would be a good opportunity to pull back the curtain a little and talk about our future plans, our current priorities, and how all of this is shaping an updated roadmap.

There are some important changes coming to our development plans. We know that hearing the words “roadmap changes” can be a little scary, especially when some of you have been eagerly waiting for particular features. So we want to explain exactly what is changing, why we believe it is the right decision for Eterspire, and what you can expect from us over the coming months.

This is going to be a long post, so brace yourselves! But first, a helpful TLDR for those who just need a quick rundown:

TL;DR

We’re adjusting the Engineering side of our roadmap so we can spend the next few months improving some of the most fundamental parts of the Eterspire experience: Moment-to-moment gameplay, engaging encounter design, and performance, all with the goal of drastically improving our retention.

This means that several previously announced Engineering features will be released later than originally planned. Woodcutting is still planned to be released on schedule. The Daily Quest system is also still coming, but we want to release it after we’ve addressed some of the core issues that could prevent it from being as effective, or as enjoyable, as it should be.

All of the other points in our Roadmap for July and August 2026 will be moved. They are not being canceled. We still want to release them, and we still believe they are important. They simply won’t be released with the timing we previously expected.

Most importantly, we’re not changing plans because we no longer care about the features on the roadmap. We’re changing them because, for Eterspire to be healthy in the long term, we need more players to enjoy the game, return frequently, and stick around. This is absolutely fundamental for an MMORPG like Eterspire.

Within the next week or two, we’ll publish an updated roadmap covering the rest of Q3 and part of Q4. It will reflect these new priorities and give you a clearer idea of what we’ll be working on over the next few months.

With the TL;DR out of the way, let’s get right to the bones!

The Year of Retention

At the beginning of 2026, we internally named this “The Year of Retention.”

Retention, in very simple terms, means giving players reasons to continue playing, return more frequently, and remain part of the game for longer.

The only surviving image of the "Year of USER RETENTION" sign we stuck to the wall of our old office and that was sadly lost when we moved to our current one :(