When Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) delayed DC Universe Online (DCUO) at the start of November, they threw out some bait to potential players: pre-order by November 15 and you were “guaranteed” beta access by November 30. Guarantee is a strong word to use in this context. For PC players, the potential to meet this guarantee … Continue reading
Filed under MMOs …
Deadlands MMO – The Video
I finally remembered to look for this and found the following: I’m looking forward to seeing the revised video at some point, because that was just ugly.
Deadlands MMO Dead, But We Might Get A Video Out Of It
During an interview at GenCon, Pinnacle Game’s Shane Hensley briefly discusses the now dead Deadlands MMO that he was working on as part of FireSky’s Superstition Studios. It’s in the podcast from about 21:53 and lasts about a minute. In brief, Shane indicates the collapse of Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment / FireSky (although he doesn’t name … Continue reading
Death and Rebirth… Of Sorts: Stargate: Worlds and APB
Stargate: Worlds looks to be properly dead at this point – although Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment may have won back the right to work on it among the mess that company and its offpspring are, MGM have pulled the Stargate license from them. MGM have also gone bankrupt, making any kind of re-licensing of said IP … Continue reading
Five Reasons Why SWOR Is A High Risk MMO: #4 The Story Pillar’s Strength May Not Pass The Building Code
In selling Star Wars: The Old Republic to the masses, BioWare has been hammering on about the fourth pillar they are adding to MMOs: story. They see that most MMOs have exploration, combat and progression, but they are adding story to that mix which is going to make them stand out. Fully voiced story, at … Continue reading
Five Reasons Why SWOR Is A High Risk MMO: #3 The Subscription Fee Model Is Falling From Grace
Star Wars: The Old Republic is a high risk title because it is being developed for some good and bad reasons, and will cost too much… and because its core way of collecting revenue is currently on the downhill slide. Although BioWare has been coy about its revenue model, EA management is talking subscription fees. … Continue reading
Champions Online Goes F2P; Surprises Few
Funnily enough, Champions Online announces it is going fully free-to-play (F2P) just days after I post a comment that it probably isn’t going to see any growth under a subscription model. Such is my power. I’ve had a quick scan around and not seen anyone else connect up that ChampO is going F2P the week … Continue reading
Battle Royale: CoH/V vs ChampO vs DCUO vs SHSO vs Marvel MMO
Back in 2008 (sheeh, that long ago?) I wrote a piece on City of Heroes / Villains versus Champions Online versus DC Universe Online. It’s time for a review of how these direct competitors are travelling, plus the new challengers in this space. City of Heroes / Villains (Paragon Studios / NCsoft) The self-proclaimed “world’s … Continue reading
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
Five Reasons Why SWOR Is A High Risk MMO: #1 EA Is In It For The Wrong Reasons
It’s been a good week for internet video game drama. There was a nice warm-up with Nick Lovell’s contribution to the masses on 10 doomed games / businesses / products, followed by the main course of EA Louse spewing bile at EA from the inside. Putting aside the validity of EA Louse’s posts – and … Continue reading
World Class Villains 