July 17th, 2026
The Original MovieStarPlanet: Your Questions, Answered
Players have been asking a lot of questions about the future of the original MovieStarPlanet, from performance and bugs to long-term plans for the game. To help answer some of the community’s biggest questions and recognize the incredible dedication of our players over the years, we asked D. Jónsdóttir, Director of Technology at MovieStarPlanet. Having been part of the MovieStarPlanet team since 2010, she brings over 15 years of experience and insight into the game’s development. In this interview, she shares what’s happening behind the scenes and what players can expect moving forward.
Q: One of the big questions players are asking is: is MovieStarPlanet shutting down?
A: For as long as we have so many users who love the game, and as long as it’s earning enough for us to keep it alive and secure, we have no plans to shut down MovieStarPlanet.
Q: A lot of players also feel like the game is no longer really being worked on. Is MovieStarPlanet still being actively developed?
A: It is. We have a dedicated team, and they really care about the game. They’re working hard to try to improve the underlying technology.
Q: A lot of players ask why MSP doesn’t run as smoothly as MSP2. Why would you say that is?
A: The reason the MSP client can’t run as smoothly as MSP2 is that it’s built in an old technology called Flash, which uses vector graphics. This means the game needs to calculate every single pixel every time it’s drawing it, all the time. And that is what has always made it pretty slow. MSP2, on the other hand, is made in Unity, a more modern, faster, and more stable technology.
Q: So why don’t you just port MSP to Unity?
A: The way MSP is made is so deeply integrated with the Flash technology that we wouldn’t be able to allow users to port their content. All the amazing movies, looks, and other creations they’ve made in the game wouldn’t be transferable into a Unity version of the game.
Q: Is MSP ever going to become a browser game again?
A: We can’t make MSP a browser game because the browsers no longer allow Flash.
Q: A lot of the frustration from players comes down to lag, bugs, and server issues, and the feeling that these problems have been there for a very long time. So if players ask whether the major bugs and lag are ever actually going to be fixed, what would you say?
A: When MovieStarPlanet was built, over 17 years ago, the cyber security landscape was completely different from what it is today. The game was built for a different time. One of the biggest reasons that the servers are slow now is how easy it has become to make and use bots. For the last many months, we have been working on fundamental changes to the system, to address some of these issues. That’s why there haven’t been updates for so long.
This is a big project and when we release it, users will have to install a whole new version of the downloadable PC/Mac client. It will be one of the most important changes we have made in years, and we’re really excited to get it into players’ hands. We’ll need everyone’s help by downloading the new client when it becomes available.
Q: Players also ask whether there is ever going to be any fully new functionality coming out on MSP, such as new events and new updates and features, or whether all of the focus is now on stability.
A: Right now, we think our users mostly want a stable and secure game that runs smoothly, so that is where we’ll have all our focus on the MSP team for as long as it takes.
Q: Players also notice when new clothes and animations are coming out, and at the same time they’re asking about fixes to the game itself. How do you explain that difference?
A: It’s completely different people working on those things. We have an amazing team of artists who draw the clothes, pets and animations that you buy in the game, and they are not the same people as the programmers and QA who work on improving the underlying game itself. We’re very proud of our artists and the effort they put into coming up with ideas and drawing the content.
Q: How do you decide what gets worked on first for MovieStarPlanet? How do you prioritise things?
A: It always comes down to: What will benefit the most players. It’s called bang for the buck. If it’s a small fix, we might do it if it benefits only a few. But if it’s a complicated fix, we only do it if it benefits a large part of the MSP community.
Q: Players often feel like they are saying a lot, but they’re not always sure whether that feedback is being seen. So what would you say about how you hear from players, and the best way for them to make their opinions heard?
A: We look at player feedback all the time. I know it might not always feel like it, but we do, and I can promise that we take your feedback seriously and really appreciate it. Users write to us through Support, and we also hear about issues through social media and our community channels. We’re constantly prioritizing. But, for example, if users can’t log in, we fix it as soon as we can.
And the best way that players can influence future updates or let their opinion be heard is through the support page on our website. The support team goes through the suggestions, and they are noted and categorised.
Q: I think another thing people don’t always understand is why fixing MSP can take so long. So how would you explain why it’s so difficult to make MSP run smoothly?
A: It’s a very old game, which makes the technology old and complicated. Sometimes when we fix something in one place, something completely different breaks that we didn’t know was going to be affected. That’s why it takes a really long time to fix any bigger issues. We have to be super careful. On some occasions, we have also had to take the games down for maintenance, especially when we need to fix something in the database itself. We know it can be frustrating, but sometimes it’s simply necessary to keep the game alive.
Q: What do you think is the biggest thing that players don’t understand about MSP1 development?
A: They think we don’t care, or that we have abandoned the game, because we don’t get fixes out there quickly. But we haven’t. We have a dedicated team whose whole focus is MSP. And with such an old game, keeping it running and improving it is a complicated project which takes a really long time. That’s why the players are not getting the updates they are asking for as fast as they would like.
Q: Looking back at the work that has been done, what are you personally most proud of, or what is the development team most proud of in more recent times?
A: A year ago, we were running out of numbers in MSP. We had so much data in the database, with over 2 billion items of clothing, that we were getting very close to the 2.14 billion limit. If we went over it, no one would have been able to buy any more clothes, and eventually the game would have stopped running. So we had a huge project on our hands to update every single feature that uses the inventory in the game. A countless number of different places had to be updated, but we succeeded in finding all of them and rolling out the project. When we reached 2.14 billion items in the inventory, everything continued to work as normal, and the users didn’t notice. The game would have died had we not completed the project in time. We worked on this for a long time and it was a big achievement to keep the game running. I’m super proud of our team for doing that.
Q: And for the players who still care deeply about MSP and worry that it’s being left behind, what would you want to say to them directly?
A: We feel so privileged having you as our players, and feeling the love that MovieStarPlanet fans have for the game. We’re really astounded by how long our players keep playing, even though they are growing up. We’re super grateful for that. We see it, and it has influenced us.