So NCsoft’s Q4 2012 earning results are out now and although City of Heroes / Villains saw an increase in revenue after going F2P, it isn’t the huge jump you might expect to see. This could be one of the reasons why Paragon Studios has made the move of introducing variable ratio randomised rewards you … Continue reading
Tagged with Paragon Studios …
How Many Players Did City of Heroes / Villains Have Before Launching Freedom?
In the rush before Xmas, I missed NCsoft’s investor relations release for the Q3 2011 period. NCsoft is unique among MMO developers in that its quarterly earnings releases include a breakdown of revenue collected from each of their key titles in that period, making it very easy to track how a title is performing. Although … Continue reading
City of Heroes / Villains: The Killing of Statesman, And Where We Go From Here
Back in December, Paragon Studios spoilered their own story when they publicly announced that Statesman would be the one to die in the “Who Will Die?” signature story arc. That Statesman is apparently dying in part 5 of what I believe to be a 7 part story arc raises my Eyebrow of Cynicism +3 – … Continue reading
How Many Players Did City of Heroes / Villains Have Before Going Free-to-Play?
I wasn’t going to do this any more. I wasn’t going to look at NCsoft’s quarterly financials, yet again track how City of Heroes / Villains had yet again dropped in terms of revenue, make a guesstimate of how many players it still had, then move on to some other bete noire. I wasn’t going … Continue reading
It’s Been An Interesting Week
A number of things happened this week in the realm of superhero MMOs. Knowing how much I can write on about things, I’ll try to keep it brief. How Now, Mr Cao? Oh, so childish. But anyway: Chris Cao was rumoured to have left DC Universe Online on DCUO’s own forums, so it would have … Continue reading
The Very, Very Late 2010 MMO Recap: Here Comes the New Stuff, Same As the Old Stuff
(All you have is my word that I haven’t made any substantive revisions to this document since January 30, 2011. Trust me. I’m a blogger. For a point-by-point recap of 2010, see either the January to June or the July to December articles.) 2010 was an interesting year for the MMO industry in that it … Continue reading
The Very, Very Late 2010 MMO Recap (Part 2)
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
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have In Q4 2010?
NCsoft’s Q4 2010 results are out and the result isn’t great for City of Heroes / Villains. As I discussed a few days ago, CoH/V saw a big Q3 2010 release with Going Rogue, its second paid box expansion (City of Villains being the first, back in 2005). GoRo saw a large jump in revenue … Continue reading
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have in Q3 2010?
With the Q4 2010 earnings release from NCsoft around the corner, now’s the time to take a look at how City of Heroes / Villains did with the launch of its first paid expansion in a long while, Going Rogue. If I wanted to hedge my bets, I should wait for the Q4 2010 release … 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