[Column] General: 5 MMOs That Were Doomed Before Launch

SBFord

In my previous list, I named four projects that I remember wistfully even though they never made it to launch. While thinking about which ones to include, the generally opposite thought also came to mind. There have been MMOGs that I feel should have been canceled before they entered live service. Listed alphabetically, here are five interesting ones that I believe were basically doomed to fall far short of the potential their publishers thought they had.

Read more of Richard Aihoshi's The List: 5 MMOs That Were Doomed Before Launch.

VicDynamo

It's funny how most agree that Tabula Rasa was doomed before it ever launched but then try to use NCSoft's closure of the game as a reason to bash the publisher.

Nadia

i dont think EQOA belongs on this list

there were 3 mmos on the console 10 years ago .. EQOA was one of them

falc0n

Eqoa shouldnt be on it. It even released an expansion frontiers. Not sure you can call that game doomed.

tawess

No i agree the EQOA should be on the list but not for the reasons listed. I should simply be on the list because it was so far ahead of it´s time that it did not have a real chance.

 

Apart from that i pretty much agree with all of them.Having played all of them apart from the EQ spin-off none of them had what was needed to make it in a market that was becomning more and more competative.

Ragnar1337

Should have had Vanguard on that list. That game never delivered anything it promised and was a total disaster at launch. The company was doomed to fail and they knew it, but they released it anyway to cash in on the hype. 

CrazKanuk

[mod edit]

Warlyx

i disagree with Eqoa , it was FUN AS HELL , limited ? yeah it was a console "EQ", but i will never forget the days i played ....i still remember travelin to Freeport from Kelethin , ugh took me like 30 mins , the awesome community

The 1 shaman bear shapeshift , if any1 has a screenshot please post it! , that little bear was the most cute thing ever.

and the AWESOME HALAS MUSIC , the ost was amazing , but this song was really well done

 

STONEWATCHERS ftw!

MumboJumbo

WAR was not immediately doomed, but the seeds of destruction were planted within it:-

• Re-emphasis on WOW market share (doom!) and hence design "If we can just get 1m of WOW's 12m..."
• Change in design direction to add the RvR expertise of Mythic
• Cannabilization of DAOC 2 by WAR as above
• EA bought Mythic!
• Insanely the 2-Faction system instead of the DAOC 3-Faction system
• The Themepark-ification of the Warhammer IP.
• Paul Barnet's marketing hyper-drive!
• Released too early out the door by EA
• Monetization did not make the most of the IP potential to iterate on

Verdict: Lasted 5 years, managed to be fun for a few months for players. Perhaps it's a success in terms of recouping it's costs, but I doubt the investors considered it a stellar investment and above all the players expectations were not met nor maintained.

Rommie10-284

Remember that the title is Doomed before Launch.  Wildstar might make it because Hardcore Raiding MMO could prove Doomed in 2014.  ESO might make it because of the changes done to the online version.

Warhammer Online belongs on the list, because of the feature backpedaling that happened before launch.  That was a big flashing DOOMED sign.  Asheron's Call 2 was so bad before release that you knew it was a sinking boat right out of drydock.

Po_gg

Can't comment on 4 of 5 (never was an EQ dude, especially not on console; don't like LEGO; The Sims is the lamest thing Wright ever done to the franchise - and I'm a fan since the first Sim City on Commodore; and the Matrix... just lol), but I disagree with TR on the list.

 

List is based on "There have been MMOGs that I feel should have been canceled before they entered live service.", well, TR was fun while it lasted, at least imo.

Its only issue was, what you mentioned too: "I felt it had become clear that the game had no real chance to gain a meaningful market share."  Just like CoH years later, for NCsoft it's not enough if a game is bringing the base numbers, or only has a marginal / niche fanbase... Probably it's even placed in their policy: Not a cash-cow -> cancel.

Nadia

Dark and Light belongs on this list

and maybe Vanguard   (pre-release, Microsoft dumped Brad)

 

Microsoft also dumped Asherson's Call 2  (post release)

epoq

Vanguard definitely.

 

As someone who played in beta and was there at launch with a lot of friends, we ALL knew and we very vocal from day one we had no idea how the game would sustain itself.  The hilarity in how poorly the game ran on a brand new expensive custom built PC when it came out was just mind boggling.  Turned out to be a great game in my eyes, but it was far too late to save itself.

Daakkon

Earth & Beyond?

Wish?

Motor City Online?

Shadowbane? (R.I.P.)

Asheron's Call 2?

Dark & Light?

Probably a lot more that I cannot think of at the moment.

Daakkon

Originally posted by Nadia

Dark and Light belongs on this list

and maybe Vanguard   (pre-release, Microsoft dumped Brad)

 

Microsoft also dumped Asherson's Call 2  (post release)

It wasn't so much that MS dumped AC2, it's that they sold the AC license to Turbine which in turn dropped it.

DAOWAce

Originally posted by OoMpAlOmPaZ

Wish?

I Wish that didn't shutdown.

It didn't seemed doomed to fail from the start though.. unless you consider the megaserver tech to have been ahead of its time.

I still don't know why they closed it down.  I bought a new graphics card solely to play the game better when I was in the beta test.  After the phase ended they just.. canceled it, and no one ever really knew why.

Konfess

Originally posted by VicDynamo
It's funny how most agree that Tabula Rasa was doomed before it ever launched but then try to use NCSoft's closure of the game as a reason to bash the publisher.

TRO was doomed because of NCSoft's game design decisions, not because NCSoft closed the game.

furbans

Originally posted by gberkhof
so will we be adding ESO to next year's edition?

Yeah..... lets forget the high sales and 700k paying subscribers.... yeah that sure is a doomed game before launch.  WS is a better candidate since the Devs were so out of touch with the reality of the market.

Konfess

Originally posted by Volgore
I expected R. Aihoshi's list of mmorpg doomed before launch to look like this: "Every mmorpg that is not f2p or asian based."

 

Bravo.

Nadia

Horizons  (now called Istaria) is worth being on this list

 

the game was premarketed with being able to play a dragon!  and dynamic PVE events

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2002-horizons-preshow-report/1100-2866587/

before launch, the lead game designer, David Allen, was kicked out of the company and game was redesigned

http://videogame-tales.livejournal.com/28332.html

 

Daakkon

Originally posted by DAOWAce

Originally posted by OoMpAlOmPaZ

Wish?

I Wish that didn't shutdown.

It didn't seemed doomed to fail from the start though.. unless you consider the megaserver tech to have been ahead of its time.

I still don't know why they closed it down.  I bought a new graphics card solely to play the game better when I was in the beta test.  After the phase ended they just.. canceled it, and no one ever really knew why.

I agree! This game was absolutely amazing! I really WISH (see what I did there?) someone would scoop up the rights for this game and re-release it with new tech, etc...

Daakkon

Originally posted by Nadia

Horizons  (now called Istaria) is worth being on this list

 

the game was premarketed with being able to play a dragon!  and dynamic PVE events

http://www.gamespot.com/articles/e3-2002-horizons-preshow-report/1100-2866587/

before launch, the lead game designer, David Allen, was kicked out of the company and game was redesigned

http://videogame-tales.livejournal.com/28332.html

 

Horizon's is still going fyi.

Daakkon

Originally posted by Konfess

Originally posted by VicDynamo
It's funny how most agree that Tabula Rasa was doomed before it ever launched but then try to use NCSoft's closure of the game as a reason to bash the publisher.

TRO was doomed because of NCSoft's game design decisions, not because NCSoft closed the game.

That is not the only reason why TR failed. Not only was this game re-designed in the middle of development, NCSoft wanted this to compete with WoW. Poor marketing relying only on RG's name to sell copies, and unrealistic goals made this game fall apart even before launch. It was also a buggy mess when released.

 

I really wanted this game to prevail but alas it did not.

Nadia

Originally posted by OoMpAlOmPaZ

Horizon's is still going fyi.

it is still running but the game that released was a pale shadow of that it was intended to be

 

what article author said about this list:

There have been MMOGs that I feel should have been canceled before they entered live service.

 

Konfess

I loved the Matrix (MxO).  Talk about Sandbox.  True it didn’t have Land Ownership or Housing.  But it had Dynamic Classes.  As you leveled you got skill points that you were free to distribute over the all Talent Trees, building a class on the fly.  There was no penalty or time restrictions on respecing your class, think SWG without having to grind the BH or TKA XP again.  Problem was after a mission you had to craft.  So you tore down your combat class, and rebuilt your crafting class.  You did this every day, without any talent tree, saves.  This is what killed MxO.  There was public transit, but no mounts.  At some level you learned to Neo Jump (MxO version of mounts), and that was cool, Very Cool.   I lived in fear of being seen by an Agent, but never was.  If Agents were more active popping in during missions runs or just during Neo Jumping.

I bought Earth & Beyond, but don’t remember a thing about it.  I know I bought it after Freelancer is all.

Daakkon

[mod edit]

Why SWG? It was an INCREDIBLE game, even after the CU. Then the Trials of Obi-Wan expansion was released coinciding with the movie and then a week later the NGE was forced upon us. SWG In it's incarnation was an amazing game and made me relive the feeling I got in UO in it's prime. Therefore, it does not deserve to be on this list because it flourished up until the NGE completely changed the game.