Epic MOBA Paragon back from the dead as dev secures funding

Developer Omeda Studios have secured $2.2 million in funding to help bring Epic’s cancelled MOBA, Paragon, back from the dead.

The developers are currently working on Predecessor, a game that looks to continue Paragon’s legacy, reusing many of the characters, animations, VFX, environments, and other assets Epic made freely available when they decided to pull the plug on their struggling MOBA. Omeda Studios also received an Epic Games Megagrant to help advance Predecessor’s development.

Having successfully raised $2.2 million from their first round of funding, Omeda released the following statement:

Closing this round of funding will enable us to create more content for Predecessor, allowing us to build unique heroes, skins and flesh out the Predecessor universe even further. Omeda’s first game, Predecessor, is one of only a few MOBA games that supports cross-platform play and has already amassed more than 35,000 fans on Discord and over 100,000 sign-ups.

Instead of simply attempting to revive Paragon and keep it on life support, Predecessor will have its own systems and mechanics, as well its own original character concepts. Part of the money raised will go towards establishing a development headquarters for Omeda with the team currently working remotely.

Paragon entered early access almost five years ago, with Epic looking to wrestle MOBA genre stalwarts such as League of Legends, Dota 2, and SMITE. What set the game apart was its focus on third-person action, controlling more like a competitive shooter than your traditional top-down MOBAs. It definitely felt fresh with enough depth and content to build a small yet loyal fanbase. However, Paragon never made it out of open beta on PC and PS4, the game struggling to find any kind of mainstream appeal. Besides, Epic had a world-beating hit on their hands with Fortnite.

Winding down development, Paragon was taken offline in April 2018 with all player purchases refunded. Epic then made $17m worth of Paragon assets available for Unreal Engine 4 creators, a gesture that was crucial in getting project Predecessor off the ground.

Predecessor had a recent alpha test in 2020. Hopefully we’ll see more of the game in action later this year.

Source: Omeda Studios (via VentureBeat)