Large independent titles can have technical problems at launch, recently seen with the Pokemon-like MMO Temtem experiencing server issues after entering Early Access in January. Donkey Crew's Last Oasis, a post-apocalyptic survival MMO, released on Steam Early Access March 26 but was taken offline for "roughly seven days" on Sunday due to severe server issues.
The studio's project lead Florian Hofreither posted a video to Last Oasis' YouTube account yesterday talking about the down-time, saying coders have been working day and night to "investigate why our load testing did not pick this up," but that they need sleep. He agrees with the sentiment that "this is not how Early Access games should launch," which led to Donkey Crew offering everyone a full refund "regardless of their in-game hours, no questions asked."
Last Oasis became Steam's top seller upon release during a time when Steam traffic is at an all-time high due to the coronavirus pandemic, yet it's currently only rated 47 percent positively. Hofreither says "many people have said this game is great, they just want to be able to play it."
The developers are hoping to deliver on that promise as soon as possible. With Last Oasis already gaining traction on Twitch before its removal, clearly taking time to fix those technical issues will only help it succeed in the long-run.
Last Oasis is currently (un)available via Steam Early Access.
Source: Last Oasis on Steam