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Are really any good EU Developers or Publishers out there?
Durray
Member UncommonPosts: 182
So recently I was talking to friends in my guild about Archeage and the inevitable conversation of who will publish it came up.
Now I should explain we are all UK/EU players and we suddenly realised that we were really struggling to name any good potential publishers for Archeage in the EU. The Americans are more lucky, but lately in the EU Frogster/Gameforge (a truly terrible company; Play EU TERA or Aion if you don't believe me) has come to dominate.
This also lead us onto the subject of EU based Developers, how many are there and how many have been successful?
So my question is, am I missing some fantastic publishers and developers? And just how many are there (good or bad) in the EU? How many can you name?
Healing the world since 2005
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Comments
Some really great dev teams come from Europe. CD Projekt, CCP Games and Crytek are the first three that come to mind. They push boundaries in both code and theme, and they've put out some damn good games.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
I agree the witcher series from CD Projekt was fantastic and I do enjoy crytek games.
But in the world of MMO's CCP is surely one of the few EU success stories?
Healing the world since 2005
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Europe's top 50 game studios by Edge
Pick one. Although it is from 2007.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Nice list, but I didn't really any that were MMO developers/publishers.
Since the initial launch of UO in the EU, I have heard nothing but disaster stories about publishers and hosting of MMO's in Europe. These companies are so bad that players many times prefer to brave the lag and inopportune maintenance times on US servers.
So the OP's question still stands..Is there a decent publishing/hosting company in the EU for MMORPGs?
"If MMORPG players were around when God said, "Let their be light" they'd have called the light gay, and plunged the universe back into darkness by squatting their nutsacks over it."
-Luke McKinney, The 7 Biggest Dick Moves in the History of Online Gaming
"In the end, SWG may have been more potential and promise than fulfilled expectation. But I'd rather work on something with great potential than on fulfilling a promise of mediocrity."
-Raph Koster
A large number of sandbox games comes from Europe.
Just out of the top of my head: Darkfall, Eve, Mortal Online, Ryzom, Salem, Wakfu, Wurm
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
Frankly, there are some EU players that find it "en-vogue" to play on US servers because they perceive the US servers as being closer to the developers cause it's usually the same company that runs the servers. Others complain because the EU servers sometimes get an update later, for example because of time needed for translation.
Personally I have never had bad experiences with EU companies running the servers, and in some cases the service was even better than on the US servers, for example LotRO that had official RP-servers (with GM support!) in Europe but not in the US.
Edit: And calling the US "lucky" like the OP did cause the US have such great companies like EA or SOE ... ah, well.
I maintain this List of Sandbox MMORPGs. Please post or send PM for corrections and suggestions.
This was my train of thought, again and again I have expereinced poor EU publishers. Saying that NCsoft (Europe) is one of the best, should put this into perspective for you.
I agree a large number of indie/small studios have cropped up and I am hopeful that maybe the future will be better for EU MMO's. However, would you really want AV or SV publishing a game like Archeage?
Frogster was a nightmare for TERA EU, but other then NCsoft (would never happen due to the BHS - NC law suits) its hard to think of a replacement.
Thanks for the list, this is great!
But its hard to see any MMO devs/publishers here...
Healing the world since 2005
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
I have never had a good experience with EU publishers and tend shy away from games that use em. Frogster one of the worst. Goa totaly useless. They might have a clue about servers, but they have zero clue on how to run mmorpg games. Ubisoft semi useless. I don't even want to try those that host for sony as they most likely are shit also.