Consequences of Failure

Power has rules. Failure has a price.

An open-world superhero game from Machine King Studios. One persistent world, built to break, where every choice leaves a mark.

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Watch the VAN-BOT run 0:44

In development Captured in-engine

01 The world

A superhero world that remembers what you did.

Consequences of Failure is one persistent world with rules that hold. You get a home, a job and a name there. Powered people called Ascendants walk the same streets you do, and you don't have to be one to matter.

What you break stays broken. The coworker who saw you change remembers it. Your pay, your dogs and your damage are all still there after you reload. The Game Master tells you the rules up front, lets you fail, and makes the failure mean something.

A caped hero in red and cobalt stands on a rooftop ledge above a blocky city grid while two jets and an attack helicopter fly past.
Rooftop, Tokyo. In-engine.

Before the invasion

Eight years before the invasion, Rusty Richards returns.

That's where the story opens. That's all we're saying for now.

02 In the build today

Every fight leaves a mark.

Every image here is a capture from the current work-in-progress build. No renders, no mock-ups.

VAN-BOT, a white utility van unfolded into a standing robot, holds a long blade with a glowing red edge on a suburban road. The driver is visible in the cab in its chest.

Vehicles

The van is also a robot.

Drive the utility van, stop, press T. VAN-BOT stands up with a blade, walks the block, chops through a parked car and a house wall, then folds back into a van and drives off.

A figure stands in front of a raider fort's scrap wall. The cream brick section is cracked and torn open where it was punched through.

Breakable world

Break it. It stays broken.

Walls, storefronts, forts and piers are built from breakable voxel pieces. Tear a hole in a raider fort's scrap wall, save, come back later: the hole is still there.

In costume and cape at a crossroads, the hero stands beside a flipped car inside an orange ring. On screen: Nobody saw you change. Costume on.
Nobody saw.
In the rain outside an office block, the caped hero faces a coworker in a courier jacket. On screen: Seen changing by Zanele Nkosi.
Zanele did.

Secret identity

Keep the day job. Keep the secret.

Clock in as a courier in Kampala. A car flips at the crossing: slip away, change where nobody's looking, lift it off the driver, and get back before the depot notices. Change in front of a coworker and she knows. Nobody else does.

A cloaked hero faces a two-legged walker mech with missile pods in a city street. A tank sits to the left and an attack helicopter hovers overhead.

War

The army is already here.

Tanks, gunships, jets and walkers share the streets with you. Air bases, naval yards and garrisons are on the map, and their walls come down like everything else.

A man in a patterned jacket says Speak up. Juno, a labradoodle marked Barking, faces a stranger across the yard.

Dogs

Bring the dogs.

Adopt two from the kennel. Rex and Juno walk at heel, stay, keep quiet, come running, and bark at strangers when you tell them to speak. After a bad day, a cuddle at home actually helps.

An Ascendant in red hovers beside an apartment block and fires a crackling white lightning beam down a city street toward a helicopter.

Ascendants

Not everyone flies.

Ascendants take to the air and throw lightning and heat rays. You can play one. You don't have to.

A soldier in green fires a railgun. A bright blue trail runs straight through a wooden wall toward a target behind it.

Weapons

Hold. Charge. Release.

Take the RG-2 railgun from the armory, hold to charge, let go. The shot goes straight through a wooden wall and into whatever is behind it.

A white airliner with a yellow tail banks over forested hills and a winding road, an airfield in the distance.

Travel

Take the flight.

Climb the airstairs, find seat 2A, and watch the takeoff out the window. The crew is on board. So are you.

03 Watch

The VAN-BOT run, start to finish.

Drive, stop, transform, chop a car and a wall, fold back up, drive away. Forty-four seconds, captured in-engine. No sound on this cut.

04 Coming later

The world doesn't stop at the game.

A companion site is on the way: your character, the news and the world's record, from any browser. None of it is live yet. This is what we're building toward.

  • Coming later

    Passport

    Create, edit and view your persistent character outside the game. Same character in the game or out of it.

    1. 01Create
    2. 02Edit
    3. 03View
  • Coming later

    The Signal

    The world's own news, live. When something big happens in the world, The Signal covers it.

  • Coming later

    World Map

    The whole map in your browser: cities, bases and who holds what. Look before you drop in.

  • Coming later

    Character & Organization Profiles

    Public pages for heroes, villains, companies and crews. What the world knows about them, and nothing it doesn't.

  • Coming later

    World Records & Sports

    Records, standings and the world's sports. The fastest, the strongest and the most stubborn.

  • Coming later

    Property Portal

    Find a place, see what's on the market, and manage what you own.

  • Coming later

    Mission & Job Board

    Open jobs, contracts and missions, posted from inside the world. Pick one before you log in.

  • Coming later

    Creator & World Engine Lab

    Build with the same recipes the world's towns, bases and coastlines are made from.

  • Coming later

    Limited Web Play

    A slice of the game that runs right in the browser. No install.

  • Coming later

    Public World Archive

    The permanent record of the world's events and battles, kept as they happened.

05 Closed beta

Take a seat at the table.

We're inviting a small group of beta testers into the world. Leave your email, tell us what you want to break first, and we'll write when there's a seat for you.

Fair warning: it's a beta. Things will break that aren't supposed to. Tell us when they do.

  • Invites go out in small groups.
  • Your email is used for the beta and nothing else.
  • Leave the list any time.

Request a seat

What do you want to test first? optional

Not yet

Wishlist and pre-orders

There's no store page yet. When it opens, it'll be right here, and beta testers hear first.

Pre-order Coming soon Join the beta