MMO98 news & patch notes

Hey everyone!

We've been following along your discussions and feedback from the past month, and have just released a new version (v2026.06.12.1) with our Service Pack 2 update. This features both new gameplay features as well as some tweaks of existing ones based on your feedback.

Chat Moderation

Whilst you liked the IRC, it sometimes felt like a missed opportunity. We've now added the ability to find scammers, spammers and cheaters, and ban them should the need arise. Correctly banning will have a positive impact on your game's overall hype.

This mechanic only unlocks after you've gained a large enough following, although you can still find more player details earlier in the game.

Ending Rework

A major piece of feedback we got was annoyance about the need to do 2 separate playthroughs to 100% the game's achievements. We've now updated the ending triggers, where you can achieve both states by simply continuing to play in your existing save.

In previous versions, you got contacted by GlobalConnect at 150,000 players and 3,500,000 lifetime revenue. Now, regardless of your initial choice, you will have a 2nd run-in with GlobalConnect at a higher milestone (not spoiling the exact value, but it shouldn't take too much time). This will allow you to reach both ending achievements.

If you already have a save where you reached the ending, you can simply continue playing on this to get the alternate ending option, this old save transfers without issue to Service Pack 2.

Solitaire

We understand Bombduster may not be for everyone, so we've diversified a bit by also adding Solitaire.

And don't worry, we didn't add any achievement requirements to Solitaire, so it's a completely optional side-mechanic.

Bugfixes

Apart from this, we've also solved some other bugs, such as incorrect visual indicators in the upgrade tree, localization bugs, not updating the amount of data you'll get from a sequel until you reload the page and more.

Should you still run into any further bugs or feedback, as always please let us know of this in the Discord or Steam Community posts.

Changelog

• Fixed a bug where Steam achievements wouldn't retry syncing, leading to having unlocked milestones without the accompanying Steam achievement

• Fixed visual bug with the Sequel view UI

Changelog

• Uncompleted milestones now show up at the top of the milestones window

• Fixed a graphical bug when upgrading datacenters

• Fixed a bug where you couldn't go over 6 development rounds

• The Abandon button now disappears once you have at least 1 development round

Hi everyone, it's been almost 1 week since we released MMO98, and it hasn't been exactly smooth sailing along the way.

However, unlike in-game, we don't just pump and dump games, without looking back and patching them up, so welcome to our first major update, Service Pack 1 (v2026.04.27.1).

The full changelog can be found at the bottom of this post.

World upgrades

Players were hitting numbers of in-game playercounts that we didn't foresee during development, which led into issues late-game where your ping would be stuck at 999 since your datacenters couldn't scale far enough.

We've now expanded datacenters to have individual, higher capacities, as well as adding the ability to upgrade your existing datacenters as well, allowing you to hit even higher playercounts without incurring a ping limitation.

Research storage rework

We've also reworked the way data storage works. We weren't entirely happy with how you have to spend data to increase your data cap, as this could feel like a "wasted" sequel round. Instead, we've now made it that the data storage cap will automatically increase as you spend your data.

On top of that, we've also rebalanced all of our research upgrades in terms of cost, to have a more clear flow.

Bombduster changes

Having to beat Expert level Bombduster was a stupid idea, and a mistake from us. We had already decided that the Bombduster Steam achievement would only require you to beat 1 difficulty of Bombduster, however we forgot that completionist required you to get all in-game milestones (which included Advanced/Expert difficulty).

These Bombduster milestones have been removed from the game, as you didn't buy this game to play Bombduster, and Expert difficulty can be infuriating to beat.

Discord server changes

We're also moving the game's Discord server for support to a new server: https://discord.gg/Ap2hx3hEWn

We've actually been active on the game development side of YouTube for the past 4 years (if you want to find out more about how we run our own gamedev studio), having built up a Discord primarily aimed at game developers.

This was leading to some issues however with the influx of new members who were primarily gaming focused into the gamedev server, so we've decided to split these 2 up. URLs have been changed in all the relevant places.

About the reviews

Lastly, I'd like to ask for a personal favor. MMO98 is a game we've put a lot of love in, with just a 2 man devteam. I understand that a lot of reviews were worried about us seemingly abandoning the game, pushing reviewers over the edge to leave a negative review.

Having a game at Mixed is a death sentence for a game on Steam however, massively reducing future sales potential and the future of our studio.

If you were on the fence about your review, please give the game another shot, and if you feel like it's moving in the right way, updating your review would mean the world to me. Also, if you haven't left a review yet, please do so, as these will also still massively help us.

Video update

We've also made a quick update video where we talk a bit more about the changes we've made and what's next.

Changelog

• Datacenters now have individual player capacities

• Datacenters can now be upgraded infinitely to increase total player capacity

• Datacenter pacing has been altered, unlocking the world view later in the game now

• Reworked data storage unlocks

• Removed Bombduster milestones

• Implemented limitations on Auctionhouse Escrow accounts

• Rebalanced the Auctionhouse item values

• Rebalanced the upgrade, research and operation costs

• Rebalanced Data and True Fans collected ratios

• Reduced the threshold to get acquired by GlobalConnet

• Added additional tooltips

• Added a help menu (F1 in main menu)

Hi everyone! The first update of MMO98 is here, addressing some of the most crucial issues. We're planning one more update later today, however our main developer is sleeping, and I'm about as skilled at writing code as Gnorman.

Changes:

• Added 2 more upgrades that increase the capacity of your datacenters.

• Added a more visible pause indicator.

• Reduced the amount of sales needed to get contacted by GlobalConnect from 250.000 players to 190.000.

• Made it more easy to abandon a game should you become soft-locked.

• Minesweeper timer can no longer overflow above 999.

• You can now have more than 5 lootboxes.

• Expanded upon some tooltips.

• Fixed some localization issues.

Hi everyone!

The Next Fest has come to a close, and with that also one of the best and most overwhelming weeks of our studio. We couldn't have prepared for the amount of players and amazing feedback we've gotten over the past week, and I'm grateful for all of you who left feedback, played, or even just wishlisted the game.

Now, the question is, what's next for us? Well, it's back to the development mines for us so we can hit our late April release date.

Addressing your feedback

Whilst you clearly enjoyed the game, that doesn't mean it doesn't have some flaws, and we'd like to address those. There were a few common pieces of feedback we kept on getting:

• Gnorman will get a disable option: I hear you, part of Clippy's charm was it's uselessness, but if you're playing for hours on end, you just want to strangle that gnome.

• More automation: Whilst the debugger may be a neat mechanic, after a while it gets tedious. We'll be adding a lot more automation for the game, so that as you progress, you don't keep finding yourself doing the same things over and over again. We'll also apply this to other aspects outside of the debugger.

• The skill tree will be completely reworked: The current skilltree felt kind of illogical/unbalanced, because it was just me throwing a bunch of things together, coming up with a number for cost and going "yup, that'll do it". This is of course not peak game design, and we're working on a new, much, much larger skilltree for the full game, that has more of a progression system built in.

• Reworking the game's pacing: Right now, most of the excitement is right when you release a game, after which you're just fighting a losing battle against seeing your revenue/second drop. This isn't great, and with all of your feedback we have a bunch of ideas on keeping the excitement going throughout your game's release cycles.

• More clear sequel development: We hear you, data is an important part of progression, and you have no idea how you actually get it, and how to get as much as possible. We'll be reworking our formulas, and provide you with an upfront estimation of how much data you'll get, before you actually announce your sequel.

• And much more: This is not an exhaustive list of everything we want to fix/add. We're planning some more late game progression, QoL improvements and much more.

Demo updates?

The demo will remain in its current state for a while, we're currently doing some big code refactoring behind the scenes, which would break existing demo saves, and want to focus on getting the full game ready on time for its late April release.

Whilst not perfect, I believe that for now the demo is in a more than acceptable state to see if someone vibes with the game idea.

However, that doesn't mean we won't update the demo at all. Alongside with the full game's release in late April, we will also be releasing a completely reworked demo, coming middle of April. This demo will get the same amount of polish as the full game, but with a dedicated skill tree and altered pacing to make you experience the game as well.

Please note that because of this, demo saves will not be compatible with the full game.

We are also planning on leaving the game's demo up after the full game has come out, because that's just what we prefer as gamers as well.

Stay in touch

If you want to keep in the loop, or just send us more thoughts, there's a few ways you can do so.

• Steam Discussions: I read all of these and will respond in <24 hours.

• Discord: We have dedicated channels for MMO98

• Email: Anything else you want to contact us for? You can send us an email at [email protected]

Other than that, a wishlist is the best way to stay informed when the full game comes out in ~7 weeks.

That's all I had to say, once again, thank you everyone for your overwhelming support. When we went into the Next Fest we were hoping for 1,000-2,000 wishlists, so seeing this reception really means a lot to me.

-Marnix

Next fest is upon us!

We've made it just in time, ready to join the countless other incremental games in this event with MMO98*, an incremental game where you go from small-scale MMO development studio up to global market domination.

*Unlike the title may imply, we've not been working on this since 98

Expectations

We're aware of some limitations and other things that we want to implement, but didn't make the cut for the demo. Below are some that we are aware of and will be improved:

• Localization, apparently shutting one person into a room to just write and translate a lot of text can lead to some spelling mistakes. Regardless, most languages have a translation written, minus some oversights. English is fully implemented.

• Balancing, apparently shutting another person into a (different) room to just change numbers can also lead to not perfect balancing. We'll be fine-tuning many settings and variables based on feedback that we receive.

• Quality of Life features missing: Pause button, shortcuts, automation, ... are amongst the things that we have on our list of TODO's. But feel free to suggest more things that you feel are missing! The best ways to do so are through our Steam Discussions, or Discord.

To whoever tries out our demo, we hope that you at the very least have fun with it. We hope to hear any feedback that you may have for us, which we can use to make the game even better.

Thanks for checking us out!