It’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything from Unbended, the action RPG made by the former Sacred developers, and what little we did see turned out to be nothing more than world map updates and concept art. Thankfully, Christmas brought with it a little present for impatient fans of the game in the way of a holiday update on Unbended’s official website.

In a shocking turn of events, the developer has opted *not* to go the crowdfunding route and is returning all funds that have been donated to them via their campaign. Instead, they seem to have found an outside source of funding.

Dear UNBENDED supporters of the first hour,

we’d like to thank you for your trust and support with which you’ve showed us that you believe in us and our project. Over the past few weeks, we’ve been discussing a lot about the concrete shape for the development of UNBENDED in the coming year, and we’ve come to the conclusion that, right now, crowdfunding is not the right way.

This is why all noble donators will receive their money back within the next few days.

The following reasons are the deciding factors:

– We’re currently in negotiations for a lasting funding for UNBENDED.

– We’ve noticed that, due to the large number of supporters, we’ve also imposed a certain obligation on ourselves to regularly report about the project’s state. This is regularly putting pressure on us and the bottom line is that it costs more time than we currently have.

– We know that for the majority of potential supporters, it’s too early in the project. The day will come, but until then, there’s much to do for us.

They do mention that those who had elements in the game named after them from the funding reward tiers will still have those assets placed in the final product in their honor, so it seems like a real win-win for both the Unbended developers and their fans.