Filed under Money …

Five Reasons Why SWOR Is A High Risk MMO: #2 It Is Going To Cost Too Much

Following on from reason number 1, the next big problem that Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to face is that it is going to cost too much.

Cost estimates for SWOR vary from the US$150m mark up to the US$300m mark, which is a big range, but regardless of its true cost it is EA’s self-proclaimed biggest project ever and even BioWare sees it being multiple times bigger than anything they’ve worked on before. The reason is will cost too much is that combination of profit, business practicality and ego I mentioned before, but the development costs are actually what could cause the most problems post launch.

To understand this, you have to look at how MMOs actually make money: box sales, subscription fees and real money transactions (RMT). Continue reading →

DCUO Beta: No Guarantees for Europe

DCUO’s big current push is their just launched beta and the offer that all those who preorder the title by November 15 are guaranteed beta access by November 30. Tying beta access to the preorder strikes me as a cynical way of pumping up preorder numbers, which can in turn be used promote how popular … Continue reading →

Final Fantasy XIV: As Clear As Crysta

I don’t care about the Final Fantasy series. It’s an important franchise, sure, but not one that speaks to me in any way. With Final Fantasy XIV about to launch there’s something of a build up, but all descriptions make the title appear as dull as dishwater to me. … but then there is the … Continue reading →

Calling All Cars: The End of APB

That’s that then: APB has gone offline. Links to the official site are now dead. Sure, some companies may have been talking to Real Time World’s administration about picking up APB (300, with a shortlist of 6), but most of them would have been poking around to see what they could pick up cheap. Before … Continue reading →

We Won’t Pay The Cover Charge To Dance, CoH/V

Something interesting happened (and continues to happen) with City of Heroes / Villains recently and it’s something that deserves a bit more attention. No, it isn’t the launch of Going Rogue – it is the announcement of the Party Pack, retailing for $8. To date, CoH/V has generally walked on the favourable side of micro-transactions … Continue reading →

APB: Well, Since Everyone Else Is Doing It…

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 →

Did Bill Roper Get A Golden Handshake?

This is me combining two different bits of information that may actually not be related. Bill Roper is leaving Cryptic Studios. He joined as the Executive Producer on Champions Online before being promoted into the role of Chief Creative Officer. Roper claims he’s leaving to explore new opportunities. Back when Infogrammes / Atari bought Cryptic, … Continue reading →

Bobby Kotick: “WoW Basically Props Up Activision”

Okay, that isn’t exactly what he said. The head of Activision Blizzard actually said, “Today, probably 70 percent of our operating profit comes from non-console-based video games. So, while you might see a month-to-month change or volatility against expectations, that doesn’t really get us too concerned.” The key word there is ‘profit’. Not ‘revenue’ which … Continue reading →