Are Official Servers Just a Demo Meant to Push Players Toward G-Portal?

I’m starting this topic because I genuinely want to understand if others are seeing the same pattern or if I’m reading too much into it.

What makes this increasingly frustrating are recurring issues like servers such as 1985 going offline for hours at a time. Downtime happens, but when these problems become frequent and even seemingly simple fixes appear delayed for long periods, people naturally start asking questions.

I’ve seen many players treat official server problems as simple technical failures or lack of resources. But what if everyone is looking at this from the wrong angle?

The official servers increasingly feel less like a fully supported service and more like a gateway meant to funnel players elsewhere. The real objective starts to look like pushing players toward paid servers hosted through G-Portal. Whether that’s through licensing agreements, business partnerships, or some other financial incentive, it creates the impression that there may be more benefit in moving players away from official servers than actually improving them.

Official servers have had recurring issues for a long time. Basic fixes often seem postponed, and long-standing problems remain unresolved. Eventually, it stops feeling like isolated mistakes and starts creating the impression that players are expected to simply tolerate whatever is given to them.

Instead of delivering the experience that was promised, it can feel as though the focus is shifting toward maximizing revenue while providing a restricted and unreliable experience on official servers.

At times, official servers begin to resemble a limited demo: restricted, unstable, and filled with recurring issues, functioning mainly as a showcase while players are indirectly encouraged to move toward paid alternatives.

I’m not claiming this is proof of intentional deception. I’m saying that, as a player, I understand why some people are beginning to feel that way.

What do you think? Coincidence, poor management, or something else?

Going based on feedback from experienced private server admins it would appear that GPortal is not a reliable hosting service for them either.

We are in a great position right now with FC and Inflexion communicating and actively working towards improving the experience on servers in general. I think we simply have to be patient, however hard that is.

Really short on patience with these guys, I’m sure you understand.

But I don’t see how, after playing on Gportal servers, people wouldn’t be getting private servers to get away from them. So if the public servers are to push people to Gportal servers, well they really funcomed that.

Why G-Portal? Official servers are hosted by G-Portal, there are lots of issues wwith them so I’ll go and rent my private server on G-Portal? No of course. There are lots of other providers offering game hosting for CE. Once I had a server on Nitrado, now I rent a small cheap server here in Russia just for me and my friend. You can even deploy a CE server on your own desktop and connect to it by your home LAN. G-Portal is no monopolist in any way, physically or legally. Official servers give us the opportunity to try the game online, that’s all.

Patience with other players or?

I think all of us experienced players that participate in these discussions know that most would assume the advertised server host is the way to go since links and advertising is GPortal.

Not everyone expands beyond that, it is normal.

Patience the server issues will be solved.

Gotcha, well, the consolation until solution is the communication, acknowledgement and clear intention. Helluva lot better than the desert we were navigating before.

Your issues are pretty much everyones on Officials and some privates, we’re in this boat together. This time, its not individual clans or players, its the game intertwined into server systems.

I have 2 private Gportal server’s for Playstation and they have plenty of issues @neres

Exactly.

These weekly update were QoL items we have been noting for years actually get addressed have been great.

A bit of the joy has been restored to gameplay, which, after years of what felt like active vandalism, is most welcome.

If I had only copied and saved the message I got back from Gportal while I rented one of their servers during Early Access.

I would post their answer to me about what they thought of hosting CE.

Every last one of you would be asking “why”.

GPortal has been dropkicking us and this game since the day they started hosting it.

I will never rent from them again.

My experience with G-Portal is that they are the most reliable game server host I have used in the last 30 years. I’ve hosted Conan servers for 5 years at G-portal. I do not have the issues the officials do, my server reboots daily in 5ish minutes, auto updates, and runs vanilla.

Blaming G-Portal for Funcom server configuration decision is a choice.

Also:

I’ll take “Things that never happened” for $500, Alex

The money I lost because of them says otherwise and you can double that amount.

The issues I had with them are echoed in the current issues going on now.