That's good news. Makes me want to test GW2 now that it's free. I was a CoH player for several years, and tried other NCsoft games, and the thing I hated most (well, apart from closing CoH) was their support. If I can play GW2 without ever having to get close to NCsoft support, that's a big bonus.
There really isn't any reason now not to give GW2 a try, if anything i would view their current move as entirely positive, in effect its an unlimited free trial of the game, if you were unsure ever of getting this game, then now is the time to try it, Arenanet are losing nothing out of this either, as anyone who tries the game and then buys the expansion, and anyone who enjoys playing the game would be daft not to, will have justified their putting the game out there using that method entirely.
this is great news....anet now has a lot more control over the game..although ncsoft still owns them but they have much less influence over anet and its players than before...blizzard did something like this when wow became successful...and due to that because the developers now directly control everything they do whats right for themselves and their players..rather than some asian company task them do this or do that...i am glad anet is the boss now.
This isn't looking good to me. ANet is showing themselves incapable of good decision making, and now there is nobody to fire the morons in charge. Losing ncsoft is a huge loss of financial backing of course, but I am more concerned that someone needs to replace the people in charge at ANet. They built a lovely boat, started dumping water into it, got confused when it started to sink, and now they are cutting holes in the hull to let the water out.
Right now all of ANets eggs are in one basket. They are betting their future on throwing away old customers to cater to new customers. This is the same company that showed how easily you can cater to both with their gw1 standalone expansions. They have fallen far.
If there was indeed a separation between NCSoft and Anet it would be public since NCSoft is a publicly traded company in Korea.
What it is more likely is that Anet are dealing with the publishing business of GW2 in EU and US due to the reorganization NCSoft has done to their NCSoft West division.
I doubt that NCSoft would let GW2 and the GW franchise escape their claws (it is basically their only success outside Korea) and I doubt that Anet would leave the safety of NCSoft financing, that allowed Anet to develop GW2 for 5 years and gave Anet more than 3 years to develop an expansion.
This isn't looking good to me. ANet is showing themselves incapable of good decision making, and now there is nobody to fire the morons in charge. Losing ncsoft is a huge loss of financial backing of course, but I am more concerned that someone needs to replace the people in charge at ANet. They built a lovely boat, started dumping water into it, got confused when it started to sink, and now they are cutting holes in the hull to let the water out.
Right now all of ANets eggs are in one basket. They are betting their future on throwing away old customers to cater to new customers. This is the same company that showed how easily you can cater to both with their gw1 standalone expansions. They have fallen far.
Oh look it is Baitness and his GW2 is a sinking ship theory when financially GW2 is a major success.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
NCSoft West was the publisher for Guild Wars... however this part of NCSoft is being closed, and publishing moved in house for ANet and Carbine. If it was not for Wildstar needing a publisher, this would have happened much earlier.
Who said it is being closed?IS not Wildstar just starting a f2p campaign?
The only information i can find is that besides the obvious NCSOFT is not financially doing well,they have removed the old all in one NCSOFT launcher and just going for individual game launchers.
There is obviously a financial reason behind this and no Arena net is not breaking free,lol.If GW2 was truly doing well and since other venues are not,why would NCSOFT sell out their profit maker,the only other game doing well is Lineage 1.
I would not be surprised to see more games shutting down,perhaps even GW1.
The REAL answers behind it all would have to do with the CEO of Arena Net,he is a NCSOFT guy and runs Arena Net,Jeff Strain answers to him.So if the CEO remains a top the ladder then nothing has changed simply some sneaky financial reason for doing this.My gut says something is up ,they are moving money/expenditures around,NCSOFT is not a business i would trust at all,they are up to something to cover their ass of losing money.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
So I just saw this, posting link below, but apparently Arenanet is now it's own Publisher, which I think is FANTASTIC, I hope this is bad news for NCSoft after the poor way they treat their customers, shutting down any game worth a damn (City of Heroes!) While letting games like Aion live on. I actually liked (not loved) Wildstar's free trial but I will not give NCsoft money anymore.
That REALLY is awesome news. I always wondered why the old GW(1) was removed from my NCSoft account and moved to ANet a year or 2 ago. Looks like ANet finally had the balls (and funds) to kick NCSoft out and continue on their own. Perhaps now is the time for me to return to GW2.
I would not be surprised to see more games shutting down,perhaps even GW1.
The REAL answers behind it all would have to do with the CEO of Arena Net,he is a NCSOFT guy and runs Arena Net,Jeff Strain answers to him.So if the CEO remains a top the ladder then nothing has changed simply some sneaky financial reason for doing this.My gut says something is up ,they are moving money/expenditures around,NCSOFT is not a business i would trust at all,they are up to something to cover their ass of losing money.
No, GW1 costs to run are minuscule. NCSoft doesn't close games just because they aren't doing well financially.
Jeff Strain, one of the 3 founders of GW2, was indeed the head of development for NCSoft West, but he left in 2009 and created Undead Labs (State of Decay is their first title).
Mike O'Brien is the CEO of Anet and one of its co-founders.
Patrick Wyatt, the other co-founder of Anet, is also working for Undead Labs, after being the COO for En Masse (TERA).
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Who said it is being closed?IS not Wildstar just starting a f2p campaign? The only information i can find is that besides the obvious NCSOFT is not financially doing well,they have removed the old all in one NCSOFT launcher and just going for individual game launchers. There is obviously a financial reason behind this and no Arena net is not breaking free,lol.If GW2 was truly doing well and since other venues are not,why would NCSOFT sell out their profit maker,the only other game doing well is Lineage 1. I would not be surprised to see more games shutting down,perhaps even GW1. The REAL answers behind it all would have to do with the CEO of Arena Net,he is a NCSOFT guy and runs Arena Net,Jeff Strain answers to him.So if the CEO remains a top the ladder then nothing has changed simply some sneaky financial reason for doing this.My gut says something is up ,they are moving money/expenditures around,NCSOFT is not a business i would trust at all,they are up to something to cover their ass of losing money.
NC soft could be selling all their foreign companies to focus on Korea, it isn't very likely but not impossible. Besides Anet have their Western venture not really generated much money.
Jeff Strain answers to Microsoft BTW, who funds his Undead labs. He havn't been working for ANET or NC soft the last 5 years.
As for Wildstar, the F2P launch is more or less it's final shot. If it goess well the game will live on, if not I think it will cancel before the end of the year.
NCSoft West was the publisher for Guild Wars... however this part of NCSoft is being closed, and publishing moved in house for ANet and Carbine. If it was not for Wildstar needing a publisher, this would have happened much earlier.
Who said it is being closed?IS not Wildstar just starting a f2p campaign?
The only information i can find is that besides the obvious NCSOFT is not financially doing well,they have removed the old all in one NCSOFT launcher and just going for individual game launchers.
There is obviously a financial reason behind this and no Arena net is not breaking free,lol.If GW2 was truly doing well and since other venues are not,why would NCSOFT sell out their profit maker,the only other game doing well is Lineage 1.
I would not be surprised to see more games shutting down,perhaps even GW1.
The REAL answers behind it all would have to do with the CEO of Arena Net,he is a NCSOFT guy and runs Arena Net,Jeff Strain answers to him.So if the CEO remains a top the ladder then nothing has changed simply some sneaky financial reason for doing this.My gut says something is up ,they are moving money/expenditures around,NCSOFT is not a business i would trust at all,they are up to something to cover their ass of losing money.
The desire to close NCSoft West has been stated multiple times in the public financial statements by NCSoft for a few years. Carbine was told to shop for a new publisher for Wildstar, but could not come to an agreement with anyone. As such they got approval to extend the life of NCSoft West to launch the game, with the understanding that if they did well, it might be worth keeping it open. However, as Wildstar didnt turn out to be the smash hit its team thought it was, they are back to the old plan. Publishing is moving in house for ANet and Carbine, and NCSoft West is being phased out. This puts a LOT more pressure on the individual companies to maintain a positive cash flow.
NCSoft West was the publisher for Guild Wars... however this part of NCSoft is being closed, and publishing moved in house for ANet and Carbine. If it was not for Wildstar needing a publisher, this would have happened much earlier.
Who said it is being closed?IS not Wildstar just starting a f2p campaign?
The only information i can find is that besides the obvious NCSOFT is not financially doing well,they have removed the old all in one NCSOFT launcher and just going for individual game launchers.
There is obviously a financial reason behind this and no Arena net is not breaking free,lol.If GW2 was truly doing well and since other venues are not,why would NCSOFT sell out their profit maker,the only other game doing well is Lineage 1.
I would not be surprised to see more games shutting down,perhaps even GW1.
The REAL answers behind it all would have to do with the CEO of Arena Net,he is a NCSOFT guy and runs Arena Net,Jeff Strain answers to him.So if the CEO remains a top the ladder then nothing has changed simply some sneaky financial reason for doing this.My gut says something is up ,they are moving money/expenditures around,NCSOFT is not a business i would trust at all,they are up to something to cover their ass of losing money.
The desire to close NCSoft West has been stated multiple times in the public financial statements by NCSoft for a few years. Carbine was told to shop for a new publisher for Wildstar, but could not come to an agreement with anyone. As such they got approval to extend the life of NCSoft West to launch the game, with the understanding that if they did well, it might be worth keeping it open. However, as Wildstar didnt turn out to be the smash hit its team thought it was, they are back to the old plan. Publishing is moving in house for ANet and Carbine, and NCSoft West is being phased out. This puts a LOT more pressure on the individual companies to maintain a positive cash flow.
Publishing in this day and age is not as hard as it used to be back in the day. Back in the day you needed supply lines and connections to stock those brick and mortar stores. Now that people mostly go digital that's hardly the case.
Tbh, I tried to get a boxed copy of HoT before pre-ordering the ultimate copy, but then I read a dev statement that HoT will not have a boxed copy or shit like that. With the F2P move you don't even need the core box now.
The only issue remaining is advertising. NCSoft West has always been poor at advertising. There are many people that hasn't heard of Guild Wars 2, much less getting an opinion about it. Advertising is subpar at best for this title. Advertising was close to non-existent for Lineage 2 as well (another NCSoft game that i played for years). Most my friends didn't know it existed...
It's actually doing quite well for the amount of advertisement they are doing (mainly banners on MMORPG websites, which is super silly way of advertising since most advanced internet users use adblockers, so those ads are never seen).
Just some reorganizing within NCSoft (west), since GW is only western succesful NCSofts game they are probably cutting grease in the west. Probably just a step in complete closure of NCSoft west (PC games).
GW2 has been out for 3 years now, and, afaik, digital sale has been standalone (separate from NCSofts along with account system) since launch, so not much to do there either, its well oiled machine. IMO, in practice ANet was more on less publisher all along and NCSoft just tm.
As long as ANet is subsidiary of NCSoft, NCSoft are da boss. Publishing is just fluff atm.
What this really means is, Anet is now what investors call in the black on the original release of the game. NCSoft supplied funds as that's what a publisher does, they give the "developer" (read:author) ArenaNet the start up money to build the game, with intentions of getting a larger return. NCSoft has probably been settled with and Anet is moving on with an expansion paid for by itself. (This is speculation, but this is how it works in investments, and all other media industry.)
This is good for the game in that Anet will start getting the credit it deserves for running GW2, and keeping it solid. That being said, NCSoft gets a chance to prove themselves worthy again if their Blade and Soul launch goes well; since it's actually going to be run by NCSoft west afaik.
Edit: As far as advertising, I get the feeling you are talking about TV commercials. As a rule of thumb in advertising, when you run a TV ad you are spending very large amounts of money, and marketing to mostly non gamers. This is why you don't see many TV ads for games, as advertising firms would usually advise against it. As I recall, GW2 recently had a front page ad running for a whole week here on mmorpg, that's what they should be doing.
shutting down any game worth a damn (City of Heroes!) While letting games like Aion live on.
Sorry had to comment on this... you do know Aion was one of the biggest MMos in the East for a long time right? It was practically the East's version of World of Warcraft. Its quite a silly remark to make about them not shutting down an MMo that had been massive.
Of course, that isn't saying I think what they do shutting down MMos is good, I stand heavily against them for that. Just felt the need to bring up that point. Just because a game doesn't take off in the West doesn't mean it was a flop.
Personally, as much as I dislike Guildwars 2 (an average game from what I seen, and for me personally one of the worst big name MMos I played in the last 10 years) I do see this move as a positive for the company. Anything that cuts ties to publishers who are about the money can often be a good thing when passion fuels a game's development.
Either way I dont see this changing the direction of GW2 for the better. The longer the game is out the more it pulls away from what they promised to deliver. I got my moneys worth but I am done.
Exactly.
I applaud them for leaving NCSoft.
But GW2 is a joke. I too got my money worth. But there is absolutely nothing that warants longer more dedicated play. And what is even more sad, nothing that is promised in expansion is not changing that.
So much for that "next gen MMO"
Gotta say, I was kinda hoping that they would recognise some of the mistakes they made with regard to features removed from GW1 and reinstate them... but it seems not
this is IMO since someone will fail to recognise a clear opinion on here.
I'm sure everyone knows by now that GW2 should've just been GW1 with GW2 graphics.
Hell no .... who would want to press spacebar like a retard for hours on end? <o>
Sure, storytelling and lore in Gw1 was/is the boss. But gameplay in Gw2 is simply leagues ahead. It's pointless to discuss it even. It's that obvious. It's not just the graphics.
Sorry had to comment on this... you do know Aion was one of the biggest MMos in the East for a long time right? It was practically the East's version of World of Warcraft. Its quite a silly remark to make about them not shutting down an MMo that had been massive.
Of course, that isn't saying I think what they do shutting down MMos is good, I stand heavily against them for that. Just felt the need to bring up that point. Just because a game doesn't take off in the West doesn't mean it was a flop.
Personally, as much as I dislike Guildwars 2 (an average game from what I seen, and for me personally one of the worst big name MMos I played in the last 10 years) I do see this move as a positive for the company. Anything that cuts ties to publishers who are about the money can often be a good thing when passion fuels a game's development.
AION was (and to some degree still is) popular in south Korea but the Korean game closest to Wow is Lineage, it have been out 5 years longer than Wow and atually have almost as many paying subs now (yeah, it is still P2P).
In the west AION made little impact but since it just is translated it is really cheap to keep it running.
I can't understand the NCSoft hate. Their F2P is fair, the games are fun, AAA titles. What MMO companies do you people respect?
Apparently it is because they closed City of Heroes, an MMO with dwindling revenues and that the studio responsible for it decided they didn't want to follow NCSoft directives and were actually trying to split from NCSoft.
Or because they closed Tabula Rasa, another game with financial problems that had its main designer more concerned (or so it seemed from NCSoft perspective) in preparing his Space Flight.
Currently playing: GW2 Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
I can't understand the NCSoft hate. Their F2P is fair, the games are fun, AAA titles. What MMO companies do you people respect?
Apparently is because they closed City of Heroes, an MMO with dwindling revenues and that the studio responsible for it decided they didn't want to follow NCSoft directives and were actually trying to split from NCSoft.
Or because they closed Tabula Rasa, another game with financial problems that had its main designer more concerned (or so it seemed from NCSoft perspective) in preparing his Space Flight.
hoho. CoX cashflow might have dipped below costs, but do you truly think these games should not be a charity? Tabular Rasa might have been led by a prima-donna who would do untold damage to the internal structure of the company, but the future of a company is irrelevent when you consider the 12 people who want to play a game. Next we'll find you killing kittens.
Comments
Right now all of ANets eggs are in one basket. They are betting their future on throwing away old customers to cater to new customers. This is the same company that showed how easily you can cater to both with their gw1 standalone expansions. They have fallen far.
What it is more likely is that Anet are dealing with the publishing business of GW2 in EU and US due to the reorganization NCSoft has done to their NCSoft West division.
In fact in the NCSoft website http://global.ncsoft.com/global/aboutus/globalnetwork.aspx?category=role&role=02 NCSoft West and Arenanet are listed under the same adress.
I doubt that NCSoft would let GW2 and the GW franchise escape their claws (it is basically their only success outside Korea) and I doubt that Anet would leave the safety of NCSoft financing, that allowed Anet to develop GW2 for 5 years and gave Anet more than 3 years to develop an expansion.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Oh look it is Baitness and his GW2 is a sinking ship theory when financially GW2 is a major success.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
The only information i can find is that besides the obvious NCSOFT is not financially doing well,they have removed the old all in one NCSOFT launcher and just going for individual game launchers.
There is obviously a financial reason behind this and no Arena net is not breaking free,lol.If GW2 was truly doing well and since other venues are not,why would NCSOFT sell out their profit maker,the only other game doing well is Lineage 1.
I would not be surprised to see more games shutting down,perhaps even GW1.
The REAL answers behind it all would have to do with the CEO of Arena Net,he is a NCSOFT guy and runs Arena Net,Jeff Strain answers to him.So if the CEO remains a top the ladder then nothing has changed simply some sneaky financial reason for doing this.My gut says something is up ,they are moving money/expenditures around,NCSOFT is not a business i would trust at all,they are up to something to cover their ass of losing money.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
NCSoft doesn't close games just because they aren't doing well financially.
Jeff Strain, one of the 3 founders of GW2, was indeed the head of development for NCSoft West, but he left in 2009 and created Undead Labs (State of Decay is their first title).
Mike O'Brien is the CEO of Anet and one of its co-founders.
Patrick Wyatt, the other co-founder of Anet, is also working for Undead Labs, after being the COO for En Masse (TERA).
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Jeff Strain answers to Microsoft BTW, who funds his Undead labs. He havn't been working for ANET or NC soft the last 5 years.
As for Wildstar, the F2P launch is more or less it's final shot. If it goess well the game will live on, if not I think it will cancel before the end of the year.
Any mmo worth its salt should be like a good prostitute when it comes to its game world- One hell of a faker, and a damn good shaker!
Tbh, I tried to get a boxed copy of HoT before pre-ordering the ultimate copy, but then I read a dev statement that HoT will not have a boxed copy or shit like that. With the F2P move you don't even need the core box now.
The only issue remaining is advertising. NCSoft West has always been poor at advertising. There are many people that hasn't heard of Guild Wars 2, much less getting an opinion about it. Advertising is subpar at best for this title. Advertising was close to non-existent for Lineage 2 as well (another NCSoft game that i played for years). Most my friends didn't know it existed...
It's actually doing quite well for the amount of advertisement they are doing (mainly banners on MMORPG websites, which is super silly way of advertising since most advanced internet users use adblockers, so those ads are never seen).
GW2 has been out for 3 years now, and, afaik, digital sale has been standalone (separate from NCSofts along with account system) since launch, so not much to do there either, its well oiled machine. IMO, in practice ANet was more on less publisher all along and NCSoft just tm.
As long as ANet is subsidiary of NCSoft, NCSoft are da boss. Publishing is just fluff atm.
This is good for the game in that Anet will start getting the credit it deserves for running GW2, and keeping it solid. That being said, NCSoft gets a chance to prove themselves worthy again if their Blade and Soul launch goes well; since it's actually going to be run by NCSoft west afaik.
Edit: As far as advertising, I get the feeling you are talking about TV commercials. As a rule of thumb in advertising, when you run a TV ad you are spending very large amounts of money, and marketing to mostly non gamers. This is why you don't see many TV ads for games, as advertising firms would usually advise against it. As I recall, GW2 recently had a front page ad running for a whole week here on mmorpg, that's what they should be doing.
Of course, that isn't saying I think what they do shutting down MMos is good, I stand heavily against them for that. Just felt the need to bring up that point. Just because a game doesn't take off in the West doesn't mean it was a flop.
Personally, as much as I dislike Guildwars 2 (an average game from what I seen, and for me personally one of the worst big name MMos I played in the last 10 years) I do see this move as a positive for the company. Anything that cuts ties to publishers who are about the money can often be a good thing when passion fuels a game's development.
this is IMO since someone will fail to recognise a clear opinion on here.
Sure, storytelling and lore in Gw1 was/is the boss. But gameplay in Gw2 is simply leagues ahead. It's pointless to discuss it even. It's that obvious. It's not just the graphics.
In the west AION made little impact but since it just is translated it is really cheap to keep it running.
Looking forward to: Crowfall / Lost Ark / Black Desert Mobile
Or because they closed Tabula Rasa, another game with financial problems that had its main designer more concerned (or so it seemed from NCSoft perspective) in preparing his Space Flight.
Currently playing: GW2
Going cardboard starter kit: Ticket to ride, Pandemic, Carcassonne, Dominion, 7 Wonders
Neither has anyone else.