Original marketing and Steam tags indicated it was supposed to be an Open World MMO, but on release, neither of those things were true; they also took steps very recently to remove both of those tags from the Steam page.

It's not a total scam IMO but the game is really boring and nothing like what was promised in the trailers. An early access game should still be fun even if it's unfinished.

It was meant to be a full release for PC and consoles in Nov 2023 (after having been delayed twice already), at which point they announced it would be delayed a 3rd time, until Dec 8th, and would be released as PC-only Steam Early Access content instead of a full game like they had led gamers to expect. The 2 years leading up to that point were spent releasing promo videos and info which grossly misrepresented both the game's content and the progress of its development.

I don't know that this technically constitutes fraud, but it is completely disingenuous and abusive of the trust gamers had placed in them.

I've seen people complaining about early access games before just because they never got released (hence my question). From the comments I get this case is a bit different though.