The developers of pirate MMO Atlas have apologised for the game's "rocky start" to life in Early Access, and have promised to tackle its performance and stability problems with daily updates.

In a Steam post, the Grapeshot Games team said their "systems got crushed" under the weight of players wanting to climb aboard when Atlas launched. "Between the intensity of preparing for the release of a massively multiplayer title, and the needs to get all of the new infrastructure prepared to roll-out, we let the schedule and initial launch builds get away from us," they said. "It’s easy to lose sight of the big picture, which ought to start and end with communication to the players."

More than 70% of the game's user reviews on Steam are negative, with criticism ranging from performance problems to the repetitive grind for resources. The team said its "number one priority" is to tackle "the stability, connection, and data issues", and it will do that through regular updates, usually daily, sometimes multiple times a day.

"We truly appreciate everyone’s patience and support during this launch period and we intend to show our gratitude through frequent updates that resolve the issues which matter to you and improve Atlas in both the near-term and over the long term."

The team also revealed that the Atlas Dev Kit, which will allow players to create custom content for the game and upload it to the Steam Workshop, should be ready on January 7, "if not sooner".