INTERVIEW: Tibia Developers on The Game’s Next 30 Years

I’ve been playing Tibia, an open-world MMORPG, for 20 years, on and off. It might not look like much on the surface, but there’s a wealth of content to be explored and many hours of entertainment to be had within the confines of Tibia. In January, Tibia will celebrate its 30th anniversary, and I recently spoke to the developers about how they manage to keep the game alive after all these years.

Tibia isn’t just one of the oldest MMORPG games still active today; it’s also one of the most popular, boasting concurrent player counts that number in the thousands at any given moment. As I learned from talking to CipSoft, there’s still plenty left in the tank.

Tibia Could Go Another Three Decades

In January 1997, Tibia was released, and over the years, it received countless updates – more than 60 major patches by today, in fact. It’s a different world from the one I first experienced way back in 2005, but in many ways, it’s the same. The world has been expanded, technical evolutions have been introduced, and content has been buffed, but the fundamental formula remains the same.

And yes, you still won’t forget your first dragon.

I reached out to CipSoft ahead of the game’s fast-approaching birthday to ask them about keeping the game alive after all these years.

How do we keep it moving? Mostly by staying close to the community and by still being genuinely curious about the game ourselves. After more than 60 major content updates we still have not run out of ideas we are excited about, and that keeps the world growing.

Milestones like this are really a chance to celebrate with the players who have carried the game this far. But the anniversary is not a strategy on its own. The work is the same every year. Keep listening, keep adding things we believe in, and never take the longevity for granted. It is not something you can assume. You have to keep earning it.

Tibia is certainly unique. In a world where live-service games come and go in the blink of an eye, Tibia has chugged along in the background, retaining users and weathering the ups and downs of the industry.

CipSoft’s Benjamin Zuckerer, one of the firm’s managing directors, gave his take:

What is clear is that it has become harder and harder to create and market a new MMORPG. Player expectations are high, and budgets are high too, so the risk is bigger than it used to be. It is rarely fun to follow the industry news these days, with all the layoffs and closures.

What we have learned from Tibia is that the basics age well. A world that lasts, real depth, and players who feel it is truly their game.

I can imagine I’ll dip back into Tibia now and then to keep my account fresh as the years wear on. What’s funny is that I typically find myself doing the same routes and professing the same habits I did ten or fifteen years ago. It’s familiar and comfortable, and I love it.

Talking to Zuckerer about the future of Tibia, I asked if he could see the game going another 30 years:

Tibia is doing well, better than we ever would have dared to hope back at the start, and we are thankful for that every day. As a studio we have been fortunate to keep growing steadily and to keep our team together even through harder times in the industry, and that is not something we take lightly.

Is there scope for another 30 years? I would like to believe so, for the same reasons it has lasted this long. The world keeps growing, the ideas have not run dry, and the community stays close.

That stable, independent foundation is exactly what lets us keep caring for Tibia and try something new with Persist Online at the same time. We are not looking to rest on the last 30 years. We just want to keep earning the trust of our players, one update at a time

I’d recommend that anyone give Tibia a try. It’s free to play, has premium options that blow the game wide open, boasts a thriving community with a great fandom, and thanks to it being so low-spec, it can run on even the most basic laptops or desktop PCs.

I’m certainly eager to see how far into the future Tibia’s lifecycle stretches. I’ve grown up alongside it, and maybe I can get my son into it one day as well.

Let me know on the Insider Gaming Discord server if you’ve ever played Tibia.

For more Insider Gaming coverage, check out the news that the PlayStation ‘no disc’ petition is gathering steam, and for even more Insider Gaming delivered directly to your inbox, sign up for our newsletter