Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Mortal online partners with asian publisher
kastrix
Member Posts: 75
http://tinyurl.com/6dfvzah
"Lekool will help us establishing a publisher partnership in Asia that will help us release an Asian version of Mortal Online, which will be separate from the EU/US server we have today.”
We could see a release in aisa uppcomming. very good news for Starvault as a company.
Comments
Well they have flooded western markets with tons of crap might as well return the favor.
"Lekool is a popular browsing game destination site popular in US"
I don't get it... They announced that they have a partner that will help them find an Asian publisher?
Don't most companies usually make the announcement when they actually have a publisher? (Speaking of which.. doesn't that fly in the face of everything previously stated about publishers and the one big server concept?)
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
I really LoL-ed
)
Is this whole paragraph serious??
"
About Star Vault
Star Vault is a Swedish games company founded by its CEO, Henrik Nystrom who has over 10 years of
experience within the MMORPG space. The Star Vault team and advisory board today consists of
hand-picked developers, 3D-artists and pipeline specialists, with considerable experience from all key
areas in developing and launching MMORPG-games successfully. The advisory board alone has 30
years of experience in game development on positions such as technical director and lead programmer
on various projects for example the AAA title Ground Control II. Star Vault has during the last 7 years
been developing Mortal Online which was released in June 9
th
, 2010"
This game will not appeal to the Asian market whatsoever. There is no loot system. All you get from anything you kill is meat and skin.
Just like in the the west, not all asians want WoW-style loot and gameplay...
Can't wait to see all the reasons why trying to increase MO's market is a bad thing though...
They just partnered with a company that promotes browser based games.
This is going to end really well.
Indeed, cultural stereotyping FTL. If you take a look at the most popular MMOs in the West, the same could be said of Western tastes - that they all want epic loot and nothing else. That's false here, so I would imagine that such a blanket statement is false in Asia as well.
This should be a pretty interesting development to watch.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
Seems to have sparked a healthy comversation on the official forums:
http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/62602-star-vault-ab-partners-lekool.html
The reactions seem mixed so far.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
I dont see how anyone could see this as a positive for the current player base. It may generate some money for SV, but will also fragment development as they need to support two versions and modify the current game.
I win!!! LOL@U
40% drop in STVA AV stock today. Now at .18 Krona, about 2 cents US. Partnering is definitely a positive !!
Ouch...
Guess the investors aren't seeing the upside to the "Asian" market expansion. Historical low?
I win!!! LOL@U
I think this announcement is putting the proverbial cart before the horse. This "announcement" was not stating that they had found an Asian publisher (even though they never wanted a publisher..). This just said that they had partnered with a company to help them find one. With no publisher named.. it's find of hard to know what will happen, but if I had to guess they will try and simply sell the game to the publisher and be done. I mean... there is no way that SV can perform any kind of localization. They still have all that "lore in Swedish waiting to be translated to English..."
As someone else said. The market reaction was a 40% drop in stock value. There are 1.63 MILLION shares for sale right now at various prices BELOW the .36 SEK the new stock was spun off at just a few weeks ago. There are simply no people willing to buy it...
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
Some thoughts from the MO Community Manager regarding the partnership:
#31 (permalink)
Black Opal
Community Manager
Join Date: Mar 2011
Posts: 365
Rep Power: 15
Adapting any game to an Asian market especially in China you have to be watchful of a lot of things. As an example take a look at WoW's adaption to China, a lot of things had to be reworked, and as such things like Full Nudity will probably have to be eliminated for the Asian client. Mortal Online will still be developed by Starvault and no one else.
In essence the current player base is not impacted by this in the slightest, but this means a lot of extra subscriptions to Starvault, and as such a better quality product overall for everyone.
__________________
Share MO with others
Opal Mini Tracker
http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/62602-star-vault-ab-partners-lekool.html#post1156442
I'd disagree that there won't be any impact on the current playerbase, in that even he states that some culturally prohibited things will need to be reworked for an Asian launch (not to mention language), which will take at least some time and effort.
Still, expansion into another large market could also be something of a boon to the game.
I'm guessing that any fruit from this announcement is probably still pretty far off.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
It looks like Mortal Online and StarVault are expanding. This can only mean more subs.
Yes, Asians usually prefer grindy MMO's, but then again most Americans usually prefer WoW. This is a niche game and I'm sure it will find its niche in Asia.
Never trust a screenshot or a youtube video without a version stamp!
I agree. MO is a niche game, and there's really no reason to think that some Eastern players might be interested in this type of game.
The CEO has given some further insight into this development:
#39 (permalink)
Henrik Nystrom
CEO
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 690
Rep Power: 15
Quote:
Originally Posted by Marcus Aurelius
I don't get this one. Why not keep it to one big world?
And is this for the language barrier?
There will still be one worldwide server for US/EU just like we have it now. Asian is something different, as you may have noticed we dont have many Asian players online, its mainly because of language barrier just like you guessed. Also in most Asian countries our game is not shown which makes it harder for them to find it. The Asian server will be restricted to those countries only, which means you wont be affected by that server and they wont be affected by the EU/US server and you cant play on the different ones.
Quote:
Originally Posted by MeduliMystery
How long do you guys think it will take before server or client source files are leaked by Lekool? Chinese companies have a history of this.
Also people who think opening up an Asian server will eliminate gold farmers are just plain wrong. WoW has many different Asian servers. When they want to goldfarm, they just play through a proxy based in the US.
Never, there is no source codes going out from us, which means there is nothing to work with. It is simply a "special" Asia server created for Asian market only that works in their countries.
This is very good for Star Vault and Mortal Online.
__________________
http://www.mortalonline.com/forums/62602-star-vault-ab-partners-lekool.html#post1156490
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
Trying to expand, and actually expanding are two very separate things.
Do you think that they are going to woo an Asian audience with a laggy server that isn't even in their own geographic locale? I've seen partnerships like this before, and the people with whom the partnership is, is a last ditch effort to keep the game afloat. They need a capital injection really, really bad, so I would venture to guess that the benefit is wholly on the publisher, with a very small injection of capital to seal the deal.
I can see the business meeting now.... "We'd like to have you help us publish our game in the Asian markets. We'll give you a 90% cut, but we need a $100 deposit."
With the stock price now, Henrik's shares aren't worth anything anyway, so he can't even sell them to make some cash for the company. Unless daddy steps in, SV is going to be in some deep water with a lot of cuts, and the sharks, they are a swarming.
The Asian publisher hasn't even been named, nor has the location of the future server been identified.
Where did you see that it would be geographically separated from Asia?
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
So you think they are going to put up another server environment in Asia?
The US is the biggest market for them even now, and the server resides in Europe. What makes you think that a game that has already got a tarnished reputation, is being brokered by people who do WEB BASED GAMES, into an extremely hostile Asian market is going to add the cost of putting servers, network equipment, routing, and access in place over there?
They still don't even work a 24 hour shift, and they are going to support Asia? It's laughable at best, and it's a move of desperation especially considering the broker they are using.
Show me one out of the 1,000s of asian MMO that does not have more than just meat and skin for loot. Especially in a full loot full pvp enviro. The western world likes loot and grind why do you think there are thousands of those MMOS. Also they li9ke games that are full and lots of things to do. Mortal online= pvp and craft to pvp. Of done.
The only thing that's laughable is complete conjecture being stated as fact. This was just announced, with very few details. Neither you nor I know what the initial plans are, or have any idea how it will ultimately work out.
Hell hath no fury like an MMORPG player scorned.
A reasonable person can make a simple assumption using a touch of logic that if you are out of cash, and need ~1000 subs just to break even, and last quarter showing no signs of improvement, you can't spend a bunch of money that you don't have to set up shop in another country, especially when you need a broker to do most of the deals due to the way business ownership is done in those countries.
It's not conjecture, it's a simple logical deduction. But if you are thinking that they might even possibly put up a server in Asia to support those users, far be it for me to dissuade your passion.
SV aren't going anywhere in Asia, they are running out of money and their stock keeps plunging. getting a new server + a network solution is suicide. Given financial results I doubt investors will accept.
Henrik keeps going on about how an Asian version will allow Asian players to play it in their own language. What?!
Has he any clue what he is on about? If there is one language that unites the most Asians, it is English. Many Asian countries are so vast they have several languages.
And, who picks up the bill for localisation? My gf manages software localisation projects at the bottom end of the market, outsourcing to Asia (*chuckle*). Although MO has very little to translate/ localise, SV couldn't afford one language. They can't even get stuff translated from Swedish into English, and a couple of them speak better English than some natives.
They're hoping to sell publishing rights in Asia to raise money, it would seem. Publishers will not be interested in a cash injection upfront, best case scenario willl be deferred payments until they're at the break even. The cost of licensing MO must surely be ridiculously low anyway.
If sub numbers were good and finances flowing, it would be a good move. In context, a desperate, desperate attempt.