The failure of All Points Bulletin is a current hot topic, especially since it looks to have pretty much destroyed the generally well-regarded developer Real Time Worlds. A great look at this toppling can be seen at GameBrief – the only thing that appears wrong are claims that APB only sold around 10k copies, whereas … Continue reading
Filed under Fail …
Another Two For the Chopping Block: Earth Eternal and Chronicles of Spellborn
Following up the announcements of Exteel’s cancellation comes the separate announcements that Earth Eternal is up for sale (and will close if it can’t find a buyer) while Chronicles of Spellborn is finishing up in the near future. Again, there is too much competition in the MMO market for stragglers to be able to turn … Continue reading
DCUO: Madly Scrambling To Launch
On November 2, 2010, DC Universe Online is scheduled to launch. Public beta still hasn’t started and announcements of features being cut are starting to appear. At the SOE Fan Faire, the DCUO panel revealed that DCUO is likely to launch with only six power types: Ice and Fire are the ‘tanker’ powers. Gadgets and … Continue reading
Exteel Shutting Down Worldwide
I’m late to the party, but I’ve been on holiday… so now a bunch of posts about things I missed. NCsoft is shutting down Exteel – it was developed in Korea, then translated and adapted to the Western market – worldwide. I beta tested this title, and even at launch its graphics were a bit … Continue reading
Bitter Pills, Regardless of Colour: The Fall of The Matrix Online
The use of intellectual properties for MMO titles is an interesting and conflicted area. Ultima Online was the first major MMO to attract player attention, having been built on the long-standing Ultima IP, while World of Warcraft’s strength is partly built off its association with the Warcraft real time strategy franchise. However, just having an … Continue reading
Is Naming a Studio After Mythical Example of Failure Ever A Good Idea? Icarus Studios Restructures
Icarus Studios, who is behind-but-set-Fallen-Earth-LLC-as-a-separate-entity-to-develop-Fallen-Earth, has announced a dramatic restructuring of its internal personnel. If you take Icarus’ LinkedIn as accurate, they used to have about 110 employees, which is now down to 28 core staff members plus customer service / GM staff. (Comments that “80% of staff have been laid off” often depend on … Continue reading
Three Isn’t The Magic Number – Warhammer Online
One bit of common criticism I’ve seen about Warhammer: Age of Reckoning (WAR) is that its PvP failed because it had only two sides, not three. Mythic’s Dark Age of Camelot had three realms and reputedly had some of the best PvP experiences of the MMO genre; meanwhile, Mythic’s WAR only had two opposing sides … Continue reading
Game Devs Don’t Understand Players – Aion and Medals
Recently announced in Aion is a new reward system. A player distributed reward system. Taken off the announcement: “3) The most recent patch notes for 1.5.1 show that defending legions can now gain medals for successfully holding a fortress but many people feel this will not be enough incentive for fortress defense. Can you clarify … Continue reading
Why NCsoft Doesn’t Sell Off Its Failures
Adam Martin picked up on my previous entry and expanded it in a fantastic way based on his time there – basically, NCsoft Korea has too much money to bother with small projects, so only big projects are worth considering. I am a complete outsider here – not worked for NCsoft Korea or any other … Continue reading
Champions Online Alpha / Beta: A Retrospective (And Some Fallen Earth Too)
It’s funny how quickly things can change. If you’d asked me how Champion Online (ChampO) had been in its alpha / beta phases and how well Cryptic had run it, I would have told you that it was the best alpha / beta I’d been in. The devs were open to feedback, made a lot … Continue reading
World Class Villains 