Part 1 is here, including a note about why April is the best time to review what happened about 16 months ago. July: Star Trek Online Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich leaves both the title and Cryptic Studios. Capcom’s Xbox Japan- and Xbox 360-only MMO Monster Hunter Frontier Online tops the sales charts in Japan. Activision … Continue reading
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The Very, Very Late 2010 MMO Recap (Part 1)
A Note of Explanation At the end of 2010, I wrote up a recap of the year’s MMO-related events for a particular site, as I’ve done for a few years. Given that it’s now almost May, I don’t think that site is going to use it, but I’m really loathe to throw out all the … Continue reading
DCUO: Then and Now
What Was Said About DCUO’s Content Updates Prior To Launch “And you get a lot more content than you do with a standard game where you might get DLC once or twice a year. You’re going to be getting things every single month, and major content updates.” (SOE President John Smedley in an interview with … Continue reading
Mortal Kombat: Flawless PR Work, But…
Warner Brother Interactive Entertainment’s approach of “we failed the first time, but here is the same thing again but this time we’ll point out how wrong you are” around getting Mortal Kombat classified in Australia hasn’t worked, with MK being refused classification a second time. WBIE then thanked “the thousands of Mortal Kombat fans in … Continue reading
DCUO: Economics Trumps Cosmetics
A lot of MMO developers don’t get in-game economies. They put them in the game, sure, but they don’t seem to spend a lot of time thinking about what that in-game impact is going to be. This is probably because: Doing in-game economies properly is hard, where most MMOs implement in-game economic frameworks like auction … Continue reading
An Open Letter To WBIE re. Mortal Kombat
Dear Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment, I have noted with interest your reactions to the recent news that Mortal Kombat has been refused classification in Australia. It probably wasn’t a surprise to you in the slightest; there was a pretty high potential for a game with slo-mo bone breaking and a focus on brutal finishing moves … Continue reading
DCUO: Untested Love
DC Universe Online’s first full content patch is due out very soon. In some ways it typifies Sony Online Entertainment’s issues with DCUO: It was originally scheduled for February 15 2011 and was marketed as such. But then it was delayed, with the explanation that “a date was put on a trailer that shouldn’t have … Continue reading
DCUO: Money, Theirs and Ours
Anyone else wonder where Jens Anderson has gone? He used to be fairly high profile in promoting DC Universe Online, popping up to promote the game, but I haven’t seen any mention of him since December or so. He may just be busy, but you’d think that after working for five years on a title … Continue reading
DCUO: A Week Is A While, Right?
DC Universe Online’s launch week sales figures are out. As far as physical units go, DCUO shifted: 151 000 PS3 boxes; and 45 000 PC boxes. DCUO apparently did good business on the PC in digital distribution, but I don’t have any good sources for numbers there. It does make Sony Online Entertainment’s comments that … Continue reading
My Last DCUO Post For A While, Really
DC Universe Online launched on Tuesday 11 January 2011, the culmination of 5.5 years and US$50m in development costs. Barring any major events, I’m going to try to lay off direct DCUO posts for a while – I’m not playing it and yelling from the sidelines gets a bit dull. Plus, I’ve got other things … Continue reading
World Class Villains 