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Will 2009 see the death of many MMO's?
dterry
Member Posts: 449
With the deteriorating world economic situation, will large numbers of fringe/struggling MMO's go the way of the Dodo? I suspect we could see large numbers of closures as struggling parent corporations cut loose their baggage in attempts to become more profitable.
Do you guys agree and if so, which MMO's do you think get the axe?
Comments
I doubt we will see the death of many MMOs. MMOs are pretty cheap n fun form of entertainment. But I do think we will see a more demanding playerbase. Players will not be willing to throw away $50 bucks to pick up that new MMO only to find out it is not what they were expecting. Nor will players keep a sub to a game they hope will get better over time. Devs will need to put out the game they advertize...not half the game n hope they can add the rest later before the players realize what is all missing.
Funcom tops my list
MAGA
I doubt it. Sex, drugs and games are always needed, especially if people have hard times.
i think anarchy online might go down soon (perhaps in an attempt from funcom to save AoC)...EQ might go down, SWG might go down, matrix maybe. planetside is going to die pretty soon. SOE will want a bailout lawl
True that, MMOs are way cheaper for a the month of playtime u get. Just for 2 people to go out and eat/movie i can pay for both mine and my wifes subs for about 2 months.
playing:DCUO,GW2,WoW
played:SWG,LotRO,CoH,GW,FF14,ESO,AlbionOnline
Yeah SOE will probably die in 2009 (took them long enough). SOE is in massive debt (in the billions). It will be a happy day for gamers when the disease known as SOE is finally gone!
SOE or Sony online entertainment i doubt will go broke or out of busniess they may stop supporting some games but not go out.
MAGA
well maybe not go out of business, but surely file for bankruptcy. The only reason they added the cash shops to thier games is to bring in additional revenues. All the cash shops will do is drive more players away than it will make money. SOE is thinking that f2p cash shop games are making so much money with thier cash shop we'll add it to our subcription games. This won't fly with 99% of the gaming community. If I won the lottery or had a million dollars then I could careless, but until that happens, SOE is in a world of hurt, and in their own masochistic way, like to hurt themselves even more.
I wouldnt mind if some of their games went to f2p.....I like some of their games I just dont think you get what you pay for, but I'd play EQ, EQ2, or VG if they were f2p, even with cash shop......
Funcom (AOC / AO) will probably be down before I finish posting this reply.
My Dead pool for 2009
1. AOC/ AO = 100%
2. Darkfall = 100%
3. Warhammer = 30%
4. SWG = 25%
5. EQ = 20%
6 . UO = 10%
lol no doubt to the truth of this statment. I wonder if any games will drop sub prices or subs altogether? (Dark Age, EQ?)
Funcom (AOC / AO) will probably be down before I finish posting this reply.
My Dead pool for 2009
1. AOC/ AO = 100%
2. Darkfall = 100%
3. Warhammer = 30%
4. SWG = 25%
5. EQ = 20%
6 . UO = 10%
cant see WAR going down , or even the other 3 bottom yet. 1, ya i don't think FUNCOM has the capacity to make a comeback and as for DF , i guess we'll have to wait to see it come out?,
I wonder if Vanguard will survive.
maybe they get down the suscription fee to 10 bucks... and free box... or account... for only 10 bucks of the free 30 days lol...
half the mmos are going down anyways.... probably by arsoning the servers
I think we're going to see an SoE/SCE restructuring this year. I believe this because when SoE merged with thier games division and formed SCE there must have been some overlapping in responsibilites. Second, their PC based online games are seemingly underachieving. And third, SCE will undoubtedly want to focus it's energy on their PS3 playform - leaving PC games out.
As so many people like to point out SCE is a business, and as a business it's likely they'll want to maximize profit by thining the herd and improve efficiency. There's just to much dead weight on the Station.
Funcom (AOC / AO) will probably be down before I finish posting this reply.
My Dead pool for 2009
1. AOC/ AO = 100%
2. Darkfall = 100%
3. Warhammer = 30%
4. SWG = 25%
5. EQ = 20%
6 . UO = 10%
Warhammer?? I recently started playing that again and that's the only game I log into and see boat loads of other players. I realize WoW has the largest subscriber base but even in that I never see anyone, in fact trying tio get a pre level 80 group together for a dungeon is pulling teeth in WoW.
I don't know what everyone else thinks, but I'm pretty sick of MMOs. I'll probably go back to playing single player games and work on programming/3D art some more. It's amazing that companies can basically create the same game over and over again. All games revolve around killing things and upgrading equipment. In the old days I remember they at least threw in some puzzles along the way to make you think a little bit. For instance you need to find a certain items to reach a certain area. In a game as old and simple as legend of zelda there were hidden areas under bushes, unreachable locations without ladders or rafts, mathmatical eqations to open a lock. I think they need to take it even a step further and incorporate the ability to do other things outside of combat if you want to.
innovation and creativity are not factors modern publishers give a rat's ass about.
In the older days I think people cared about be creative more. Its always been about the same thing but now I think they have their rosetta stone for success.
They will continue to make WoW clones as long as people buy them.
If Darkfall actually launches this month, I don't expect it to survive to the end of the year. If they push the launch out to something like summer it will survive the calendar year, but not much longer in to 2010.
Just my prediction. /shrug
I think what we wil see is not that a lot of games go under, but that more people will trim down their subscriptions -- for example, people who subscribe to more than one MMO may decide to skinny that downj to only one MMO at a time, or to have only one account open (where they may have had more than one account open in the past).
If any of the SOE MMOs are shut down it will be Planetside, PotBS or Matrix Online. EQ, SWG and the others have very low operating costs and have enough subscribers to carry them. Sorry SOE haters.
The only major MMO that might be in trouble is AoC. Funcom needs to stop all development on any and all expansions and games and focus entirely on AoC to fix and finish the existing content. If they dont then they will continue to lose subscribers until AoC dies.
My guess is that gamers are becoming "jaded" by big companies and "brand name" mmo's (i.e. StarWars/Trek/Gate)... Perhaps it will be a good thing that they fail and learn the lessen that gamers want good, fun gameplay, and not that a lightsaber is regulation size, or the Enterprise has the correct color.
I predict smaller gaming companies and "unknowns" springing up more, they will succeed but on a small scale and keep their respective subscribers.
Big companies have forgotten to design games from a gamers perspective, and has changed from designing a game from a Marketting perspective (namely will Brand X pull in a lot of subscribers?). I guess if people make the same mistakes as buying a new "name brand" mmo, subscribe for one month, the unsubscribe... the big companies will continue on this trend, but in the long run, they only hurt the gaming community that is craving for fun gameplay and original content.
I can see the great whore of babalon (SoE) making an AvP mmorpg... ugh... enough already!
'nuff said
Darkfall
WoW and WARhemorage... hammer
There's always a chance for some older MMOs to finally close servers, such as AO mentioned above. As far as new games, the only ones with a chance to go under is AoC, Pirates of the Burning Sea, or Vanguard.
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