After several months of negotiation, Spokane-based Cyan Worlds regained the rights to its complex immersive game, Myst Online.
Cyan President Rand Miller said Monday the deal with the game's publisher, GameTap (owned by Turner Entertainment) will allow Cyan to once again turn on the game and allow fans to interact and even create new content for Myst Online.

GameTap operated Myst Online for about a year, then closed it down in April 2008, saying the closure was due to business reasons.

Ardent fans of Myst and Myst Online have been vocal about having a hand in resurrecting the game and adding more content to the project. Up to now, Cyan Worlds has resisted approving that option, pending the regaining of the publishing rights from GameTap.

Miller said the new plan is for the game's fans to have that freedom to create new environments and new content.

He added it's uncertain if the revival will lead to a longterm commitment by Cyan to continue developing the game. The regaining of the rights is a step in that direction, but Miller said it's unclear where the experiment in shared, user-created content will lead.

Cyan Worlds itself has downsized its game-development staff to less than 10.

The delay in regaining the rights to Myst Online was due to both Cyan and GameTap working through a gradual understanding of how the game's development might proceed.

Miller said Cyan did not pay anything to regain the publishing rights. But at some point, if a commercially successful revival comes about, the two companies have an agreement on how each will be compensated, he added.

"They realize that unless something happened (to revive Myst Online), it wasn’t going to live. And if it didn't live, no one would ever get anything out of it."

Cyan Worlds made its first breakthrough game, Myst, in 1994. Later versions elaborated upon the notion of a lost D'ni civilization and its "ages" or areas where participants are allowed to explore.

The online version of Myst was an ambitious 3-D world with rich and constantly changing circumstances and interaction with other game-players.

Miller said the new, revived version will charge participants a minimal fee of perhaps $25 per six months.

"That's not being done to make money," he said. Rather the charge will be to cover the costs of adding servers at Cyan Worlds to handle the game play, said Miller.

Thank you GameTap! This is a very happy day indeed!

w00t w00t ! ! Where do I send my 50 bucks? my 100, my 200? ?
Oh to hear the hawks at my Relto again. 'sigh'
God does give us all good days, He just asks us to wait on Him.

Al'Kaera of the Unbound Hearts of D'ni
KI# 05969479
P.S. Until UruLive is up and running, you'll find me camping by the cleft in the desert.

I needed this great news today! I wanna go home! Can't wait! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Excellent news. Glad to see it'll come back with fan content.

Great job Rand! As far as I can see this plan has less chance of crashing and burning. :)

I feel that if Uru isn't money-driven things will go better, people will be happier.

I hope that Cyan can survive though. You have built something so unique there, I hope at least the core-employees can stay working together.

Best wishes, I know I'll be there when it comes back

Lontahv :D

Great News!! Can't wait to be back in the cavern. Thanks Cyan & Gametap!

LAHI

This is the best news I've heard in a long time. So many ppl from URU have been lost without our game, I am so happy and will be there the first day it's open again. WoooooHoooo!!!!!!!

Thank you GameTap! And, thank you Cyan for not giving up! This is truly a great day! Like Al'Kaera, I will glady pay any subscription fee! Oh, to walk the paths of the city and the halls of K'veer once more... to explore ages, both new and old... to learn more secrets and history of the D'ni It's been difficult for my bevin mates and me... so many friends with whom we have lost contact.

Though, now I have to open up my Relto hut and air it out. I'm sure it's gotten rather musty in there, being closed up all these months. Not to mention turning on the fountain in our Bevin... that thing is probably going to have to be cleaned first.

/me makes a to-do list for his Bevin mates -- including planning a re-opening party!

r'T, of Tayma's Bevin KI# 6031618
Mystryman, solitary exporer of DRC(16) KI# 180778

I needed some good news and this is some of the best news I could have gotten! WoooooHoooo!! I can't wait to get back in the cavern to feel at home again!

Halleuiah! Shorah All! My friends will be back and we can play Sardines, and my fireflies will swarm once again around my relto. Anyone wanna a good puzzle? check out doritosthequest.com. I'm competing for the chance to get $100,000

Such good news to read in the morning!
This made my day! Looking forward to what will come. :)

YES!! YES!!! YEEESS!!!! Can't wait to get back home with all my buddies!!!!
PLEASE make it available to ALL COUNTRIES from the start! Could not stand it if TheStranger (Israel) would not be there with us.

Excellent, fantastique. C'est trop bon de voir qu'enfin, les choses vont arriver là où elles auraient dû aller dès 2003.

Vivement l'ouverture des serveurs ! Les âges français seront prêts !!

So great to get this good news - I missed my friends, my Relto, running around the city, poking around by the docks, having amazing choices of beautiful places to go to... as an old friend used to say: *bounce bounce* :D :D

Yeay!!! Wonderful news, I'm so happy now! I'll pay whatever just to see my fellow uruites again :)
Woooohoooo!
BIG THANKS to CYAN and GAMETAP!!
ametist

FAR OUT MAN - I could kiss you! A thousand blessings on Cyan and with special thanks to you, Rand . . . let us make it happen soon for sure? Pretty please with a chocolate sundae on top?!?!?! XD

Oh, this is so wonderful! I had been imagining several different Cyan/GameTap arrangements that could lead to a new Uru, and this one seems to be the best possible solution.

Thanks you so much, GameTap! You've done a very generous thing that will be very much appreciated by a lot of good people. And Cyan -- Godspeed! I'm really looking forward to any new developments.

Mowog

And now we will return, can't wait!

GREAT news for Cyan and its dedicated (and sometimes obsessive) fans. To quote Eleanor Roosevelt: "The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams"
Rivendell

:DDD Amazing news!!, Oh wow, all of us camped out at the cleft are awaiting the day we can walk down to our relto again :)

To stand at the head of the Great Stair again and look out at the beautiful Kerath's Arch and the glistening water. To be able to help newbies learn all the mysteries of this wonderful game and become part of our great family. To stand on my Relto once again and hear the eagles scream. I dont mind if we even have to start the game over again to regain all of those things. I am OVERJOYED!!!Thank you GT and Cyan. JUST cant wait. Lets make it work this time. Together we can do it. I join others at camping out at the cleft waiting for the news to start the race again.

/me dance, cheer, runs around and hugs everyone!!!! then runs off to tell the rest of the gang we can go home soon!!!!

If only to see Dagda's avatar in the auditorium reading the books of the D'ni to us, this is great news. To play with Eddie, to play with orange cones, to gaze at the stained glass, to play Heek, to visit the old and the new ages of URU, and with others, ah, tis news not Earth shattering, but Earth building.

SHORAH!!!!! This is soo cool the moment i have waited for along time . Just a thought has anyboudy contacted Cyan and told them that alot of us are hanging out in SL making Myst/ UrU related areas hoping for the return. If we contacted them as a group...u know it might give it more momentum

a great big thank you to everyone making this possible our family has come home again thank you all

Finally a reason for hope. Thanks to GameTap and Cyan for picking up my spirits. I would gladly pay far more for more than the $50 per year mentioned in the article -- at least if some Cyan content was added occasionally. Don't get me wrong; having the old cavern back and a bit of fan-created content will be nice but nobody does story and art like Cyan...

i am almost weeping with joy. i never lost faith, i knew we would be back, i just never thought it would be this soon! never count cyan out. thank you rand and cyan for not giving up. thank you gt for being reasonable.
shorah, my friends. i can't wait to see you all in the cavern again!

This is a great step in the right direction! Thanks for not giving up on us, Cyan. :)

Amazing news can't wait for more news on how things will work!!

Congrats to everyone at Cyan

Kudos goes not only to Cyan and GameTap, but to the fans whose unwaivering faith kept it alive! *group hug*

Thanks very much Gametap. I can't wait to get back into the cavern again. It will be so great to see everyone in what feels like my second home to me. :) I can't wait to be back in and greeting again.

So, as someone who has followed this from afar but never been able to join in (technical limits), where should I monitor for the best updates on the situation? Cyan Worlds site seems to have old news, and there's the Gametap forum but...

Recommend community link?

- H

Chris Gerlach, a regular at the Myst Online forums, recommends the following for staying on top of new developments:

the Guild of Messengers...

http://www.guildofmessengers.com

and they have a newsletter that comes out once a month and also the
Archiver,

Also recommended is the Cavern Today, a regular (monthly) online magazine.

It's at http://www.thecaverntoday.org/Archiver/

Hihoo Folks,

indeed that sounds verry good, a wonderfull massege for me as well ... thank you so much GameTap and CYAN!

Greetings from Hamburg, Germany
Rheingold

WHOOO HOOO!!! HEHE!!!! ITS COMING BACK!!!!

I'M SOOOOOO HAPPY!!!

Check it out on my blog at http://urulive.blogspot.com

A good day indeed... There is so much that can be done with this thing to make it unstoppable. Player participation in the design is what the game needs. If the issue is money as it always is...it can only be solved by player support...ask and you shall recieve

I would recommend monitoring this site forum. Seems to me cyan will be doing something there as soon as it is available again.

Sorry click on my name above it will take you to myst online website.

Very cool! When are they going live? I'll be there. And so will most of the members of ewaerbl's bevin. See you in the cavern!

The light in my heart is once again shining brightly with the knowledge that
I am once again returning home .... my home in the cavern with my wonderful family who I have been desperately longing to be reunited with once again. I didn't die after all, my energies have simply been traveling in time. As we all know.... the ending has yet to be written!!!! I am anxious and impatient to return to 'my Gira'. yayyysssss!!!!

I was in withdrawal for a long while when URU was taken from me, but now YIPPEE I am going home and will meet my friends again, and sit in my relto looking over the vast expanse of clouds!! can't wait see you all soon.

Laurie

I would like to add my Yippeees - Whoots - etc. and so on to everyone else's. Thank you Cyan for the effort you made to get this game back for us to play. And Thank YOU GameTap/Turner for showing that large Corporations can have a heart.

I am so happy to hear the good news. I have wondered other online worlds in search of a new home. I have made some new friends, but I sincerely miss my URU neighbors and friends. Nothing can take the place of URU in my heart. I can't wait to come home.

A breath of fresh air? Ha ha, more than that. It is a new wind blowing and we will breathe easily again in the cavern. What a kick!! I can hardly wait. For now, I'm holding my breath. Go Cyan, we're with you!!

Yessss!!! I really hope that URU goes back online. I will gladly pay whatever fee is required. After all URU isn't just a game. It's a world of its own. I still remember when I first got my computer in 1997. I was shopping for a computer game for my brother on Christmas. I saw Riven and decided it might be fun to see how it played on my computer. I WAS STUNNED!!! I had no idea at that time that that type of graphics technology existed. It was sooo realistic. From that moment on, I was absolutely hooked on the Myst series, all the way through URU. When URU went online, I was once again stunned! =) It was the first game I had ever played where I could interact with other game characters, literally from all over the world in such a realistic way. I enjoyed going online with my brother and meeting all of the other players. (My brother was "Frank Hardy" and I was "Joe hardy"in the game. I'm a big Hardy Boys fan too).=)

It was really disappointing when it went offlne. But now......Uru WILL live Again!! =)

As my good friend said after finish reading of this post forum, look Fero, you cant even imagine how many flowers you can see over this post forum...

im happy with all of you, Thank YOU Cyan and GameTap/Turner.