A new MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) is on the horizon, but instead of the medieval fantasy or futuristic sci-fi setting, Wild West Online takes players to the early days of the American frontier. The game will be a Player vs Player (PvP) open-world game that will allow players to create a new life in the savage days of the cowboys.

Wild West Online is being published by DJ2 (We Happy Few) and developed by the newly established company 612 Games. The team is expecting a Fall 2017 release, which is synonymous with the highly anticipated (and similarly themed) Red Dead Redemption 2 from Rockstar Games. According to the DJ2’s Creative Vice President Stephan Gugaj, this actually intentional. Rockstar has yet to announce whether or not their new Western-themed game will be available on PC, so 612 Games decided that they would jump on the Cowboy Express and create an immersive Wild West MMO themselves. In an interview, Gugaj stated:

“There’s an audience for this that just wasn’t being served on PC. So we wanted to make this big, open Wild West world with a bit of a twist that, like the best MMOs, is a place where people can really live in.”

Within the world of Wild West Online, players will be able to join gangs and wreak havoc in various towns or put on a tin star to uphold the law. Murder and thievery will earn you wanted stars, much like in GTA or Red Dead Redemption, and the company is hoping to expand in the future by adding bank heists and train robberies. More than bank robbers and lawmen, players can also build and work on farms or run a gold mining operation, all which will have an adverse effect on the in-game economy.

Currently, there is no gameplay footage, but a few in-game images of the upcoming MMO have been released by the developers. The first image in the gallery below started making its rounds on the internet, which some fans mistakenly thought were from Rockstar’s forthcoming title.

Wild West Online is already slated for a Fall 2017 release, but the developers are planning to start a Kickstarter at the end of the month to expand the game. Hopefully expansions to the title include the above mentioned train robberies and bank heists as well as making female playable characters. According to the team, adding playable female characters into the game properly was beyond their resources, and they hope that their crowd-funding campaign will gain them the necessary means to implement them into the title.

A look on the title’s official website reveals a countdown clock, which reads “More Will Be Revealed In…” The countdown should end around 3:00 PM PDT on May 17. Hopefully some gamplay footage and an official trailer will be released.

What do you think of Wild West Online? Is it too close to Rockstar’s Western for comfort or are you excited that there are now two wild, wild west games arriving this year? Let us know in the comments section below. Be sure to follow DFTG on Twitter to catch around the clock coverage of the hottest news in gaming and entertainment.