In games advertising, self-administered wounds are becoming increasingly rare. As the games industry matures, there is at least some sense that what developers say to games journalists reporters is going to go to a wide, mainstream audience, so if something stupid is said a lot of people are going to hear it. Which is why … Continue reading
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Great MMO Collapses of Our Time – Destination Games
You can get excited now, because if you picked this option, you’ve decided to back Destination Games! Destination Games Game That Destroyed Them: Tabula Rasa Studio Launch Date: April 2000 Studio Closure Date: 28 February 2009 Invested In By: NCsoft Estimated Money Blown: US$106m Cause of Death: Restarting the project, internal culture of fear and secrecy, … Continue reading
Great MMO Company Collapses of Our Time – RealTime Worlds
If you selected this option, congratulations – you decided to back RealTime Worlds! RealTime Worlds Game That Destroyed Them: All Points Bulletin (APB) Studio Launch Date: Early 2002 Studio Closure Date: September 2010 Invested In By: Private investors Estimated Money Blown: Over US$100m Cause of Death: Spending all the budget before the game had even launched, … Continue reading
Great MMO Company Collapses of Our Time – Mythic Entertainment
If you selected this option, congratulations – you decided to back Mythic Entertainment! Mythic Entertainment Game That Destroyed Them: Warhammer Online (WAR) Studio Launch Date: 1997 (when it took the Mythic name) Studio Closure Date: 24 June 2009, when it became BioWare Mythic Invested In By: EA Estimated Money Blown: “south of US$100m” on WAR Cause … Continue reading
What’s Wrong With The AAA MMO Industry, Using An Imperfect Baseball Analogy
You’re the head manager of a new baseball team. You’re passionate about what you want to achieve, have some great ideas in mind and have at least enough money to get things rolling. When you tell other people about what your team is going to achieve, they sound excited too. You know that you are … Continue reading
How 38 Studios Spends $4m a Month On Operation Costs (Probably)
An interesting factoid emerged in the wake of 38 Studios struggling to come up with the cash to make a good faith loan payment back to Rhode Island and fund its payroll: it was announced that it costs them US$4m per month in operating costs to stay open. 38 Studios apparently has 379 full-time staff. … Continue reading
Path Finding and Kick Starting
As previously discussed, I’m fairly cynical of Kickstarter for video game development. Backers see it as supporting something they are interested in; I see it as companies leveraging off their previous reputation and gamer hope to get money gifted to them. Because that’s what the money is: a gift. Once the pledge target is met … Continue reading
The Secret World: Fighting The Previous War
There has been one MMO that I’ve been interested in for a long time and that’s The Secret World (TSW). I joined the forum back in June 2007, but my account had issues with posting in threads, plus I’ve long since got over my interest in taking part in the “wouldn’t it be cool if…”-style … Continue reading
Marriwage Bwings Us Togethwer, Skyrim-Style
Skyrim made my Argonian Lizardwoman a lesbian. Or at least outed her to me, anyway. There were early signs: the dialogue in “A Night To Remember” indicated that my character’s fiancée was a woman, Evette San called her “the best man for the job” in helping her with her spiced wine issues, and there were … Continue reading
Point / Counterpoint: Survival Horror Market Too Small, Says Dev; Oh No It Isn’t, Say Gamespot Comments
Paraphrasing Resident Evil: Revelations Producer Masachika Kawata: The survival horror fanbase in the US / West is too small to justify a big development budget on a single title, which is why the Resident Evil series is heading in a mostly action-horror direction. Paraphrasing the Gamespot comments to this Gamasutra article as re-written by Gamespot: … Continue reading
World Class Villains 