What Happened to Temtem?
Temtem by Crema
Temtem is a massively multiplayer online creature collector that found some popularity in early access on Steam leading up to its full release in September 2022. The comparisons to Pokémon are hard to ignore, and I don’t want to harp on that too much, but it is the most well-known point of reference. Much like the Pokémon games, players in Temtem build up a team of colorful creatures with elemental abilities, battle other tamers, and explore a vibrant region full of various environments. The main difference is that Temtem is full of other players running around at the same time. Other than that, Temtem is a more challenging game and has removed any randomness from battle mechanics like a chance to burn or miss an attack. For a long time, it seemed like the most serious alternative. It got decent reviews and had a solid base of players. But now, looking at the game’s Steam page, it has “Mostly Negative” recent reviews, with only 34% of recent reviews being positive. So, what happened?
The independent developer behind Temtem, Crema, just announced their next game in the Temtem universe, Temtem: Swarm, which looks to be a rogue-like bullet-hell with the same signature creatures. But many fans are not happy with this announcement. Among the top comments one user stated: “Temtem started out great but it feels like they’re not even listening to player feedback anymore” with 28 upvotes. Another user commented: “They should have put these resources into Temtem itself and expanded on the world of Temtem” with 44 upvotes. With a game like Temtem, a constantly online MMO, having a healthy and happy base of players is important, whether they are justified in their anger or not.
For some quick background, Temtem was originally funded through Kickstarter. They raised over five hundred thousand dollars after setting a seventy thousand dollar goal. Kickstarter can be a great way for independent developers to get an idea funded, but one important aspect of Kickstarter is that backers invest different amounts of money with clearly outlined expectations of what they will get in return. On one level, there are individual backer rewards. These can be along the lines of backing for twenty dollars to get a copy of the game or one thousand dollars to be added to the game as an NPC (which fourteen people did). But there can also be stretch goals, which are optional goals that can only be achieved if certain financial milestones are reached. For example, an original stretch goal was if the campaign hit two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, then the game will be available on the Nintendo Switch (this is a goal that was reached). Generally, stretch goals are a win-win for everyone. Developers get more money to make their game and backers get rewarded for their support with additional features. Starting off the game’s relationship with fans in this way sets expectations of clear communication, living up to expectations, and a certain level of transparency that has not been the same since.
The official subreddit for the game, r/PlayTemtem, now appears to be more populated with vocal opponents of Crema than actual fans. Information is difficult to find, but it does appear that no new areas to explore or new creatures to find have been added since the game left early access two years ago. Instead there has been more of a focus on player versus player content. Many original fans feel this is a major reason why the game has not been able to retain a healthy player base and that the developers have abandoned the game.
A few days ago, Enrique Paños Montoya, the CEO of Crema, addressed fan concerns. Saying in a statement that “the community expects to add infinite content, which is costly in terms of time and money, and just because it carries the MMO label, but MMO doesn’t mean infinite.” The main conflict seems to be in expectations. Montoya went on to say that “Crema has clarified since 2018 that it wouldn’t be like those MMOs… those MMOs have a subscription model or are free but with pay-to-win practices. They are sustainable in that way.” This is a fair point, a game cannot continue to add infinite free content and remain sustainable. But that’s not really the issue.
Yes, Temtem does not have a subscription and it is not free-to-play. Instead players pay once to purchase the whole game. That seems simple enough, but it’s not the whole story, particularly for console players. Temtem may not require a subscription, but console online services do. Many other games have online features such as connecting to play with friends, but many of them at least let the player play the game while in offline mode too. Temtem cannot be played without connection to the internet. If a player is unable to afford an online subscription next month, they will simply be unable to access their game. So, in a roundabout way, some players are paying a subscription to keep playing Temtem while also paying a price to buy the game. Plus, as fewer and fewer players log on, many fans of the game worry that Crema will simply shut down servers, severing access to the game entirely. If Crema addressed these concerns to some degree, perhaps by making online play optional, chances are a huge portion of the unhappy player base would feel a lot better.
Console players could potentially save money by canceling their online service subscription. Nintendo Switch players could take the game on the go. And maybe some of the money saved for that subscription would be happily spent on Temtem DLC somewhere down the road. Of course, this would not solve everything, but it could be a great start towards building back trust with the community.
There’s really no telling what the future holds for Temtem. Maybe the upset fans are just a vocal minority and all of this will blow over sometime soon. Maybe Temtem: Swarm will be a hit that draws in many more players. Maybe too many players feel burned by Crema and won’t trust them ever again. We will have to wait and see. But the worst part of all of this is that underneath all the issues, Temtem does seem like a solid creature collecting game. The creature designs are great, the world is fun to explore, and the story battles do provide more of a challenge than other more popular creature collectors. If Crema can make some key changes and build back some much needed trust, Temtem could go on to be a hugely popular series.