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What big name MMORPGs have closed their doors?
FunkyLasagne
Member Posts: 339
Thinking about the problems with SWG and to a degree VSOH I suddenly found it really difficult to recall any big-name MMORPGs (i.e. notlow subscrription) that have actually closed their doors. The only one I can think of is that one that merged with Eve (or had its subscriptions transfered) - but I can't remember it's name. Any more?
Comments
Playing: WoW,
Played: Aion, AoC, Eve, EQ, EQ2, LOTRO, Runescape, Guild Wars, DAoC, Planetside, SWG, WAR, Darkfall
Wanting to try: DCU Online
Waiting For: Star Wars The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2.
Oh and DnL is still around. . . . it just won't die.
I don''t really know when Humankind will die out but i''m guessing about 6 years before WOW.
-BarCrow
Asherons Call 2?
Very very few "big name" MMO's have actually shut down. Earth and Beyond, Asheron's Call2.......thats about it. (Was Motor City considered a big name MMO?) Most of them fade off to obsurity maintaining a core group of players. Even Horizons is still breathing.....that game is like a cockroach, I think it would survive a Nuclear war.
You might see a few more kick over in the next year or two but its pretty uncommon overall. Its more likely they get bought by smaller publishers who can maintain them at a profit.
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/RZetlin
Hmmm what about Horizons? Is that game still clinging by a thread or is it finally shut down? Not sure I would exactly call it a big name mmo either, but hey they wanted to be didn't they?
Amazing CGI toons: http://www.damapro.com/ & http://www.renderosity.com/
The guys who did Dragon Empires?
Ultima Online Oddyssey? Ultima Online X?
...Imperator... but Mythic is very much still around.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
Wish, UO-O and Impirator didn't close, developement was stopped and they never made it out the door.
Dragon Empires was being done by Codemasters, who cancelled it halfway through development. Shortly afterward I guess they re-invented themselves as a publisher instead of a dev house, porting RF Online and Archlord into the NA market.
I don''t really know when Humankind will die out but i''m guessing about 6 years before WOW.
-BarCrow
The pink champagne on ice
And she said ’we are all just prisoners here, of our own device’
And in the master’s chambers,
They gathered for the feast
The stab it with their steely knives,
But they just can’t kill the beast
That game clings on to life like a fly on manure.
Shadowbane, while still functional is on the edge of collapse.
AC2 as mentioned is an MMO that had great potential but failed after 4 years. AC2 reached a subscription level of 120,000 (EDIT: 50,000, AC1 had 120k at its peak)) active users, putting it in the top 10 (EDIT: 20) of all MMO's at the time.
Horizons, while limping forward has to be the largest world I have ever played in with virtually no one in it....
5 MMO's own 80-90% of the market today
WoW - 52%
Lineage 1 - 12%
Lineage 2 - 10%
Runescape - 6%
FFXI -4%
Though this data is almost a year old, I imagine WoW has moved beyond it's estimated 52% of market share, I imagine Lineage's have both fallen.
Other notables are probably lower than most people think
Eve- 1%
DAoC 1%
SWG 1.3%
Everquest 1&2 2%
UO - 1.1%
Again remember this data hasen't been updated for almost a year, but I wouldn't expect these numbers to be far off....
Presentation for new MMORPG economics concept http://www.slideshare.net/talin/mmo-economics-concept-v-10
If really Asherons Call 2 reached 120k subscriptions then why would Turbine pull the plug on it?
As far as I know it never reached the expected 35k subscriptions but it's a bit strange that Turbine DID pull the plug on it.
I mean look at Dark Age of Camelot, that game doesn't have many people playing it and yet Mystic keeps it going.
big game? yeah. big NAME? no. and it never was released so it cannot close down... beside, the jury is still out on that one, the devs have not given up just yet.
There is a big difference between something that get cancelled in development and something that get closed down, the first is fairly common, the second almost never happened. Only 2 big names to close down were Earth & Beyond and AC2. period.
What happen is instead that the game fall into obscurity and survive with a few thousands subscribers. not dead, but forever out of the mass market. Shadowvbane had such fate, as did horizons.
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
MMORPG.COM has worst forum editor ever exists
Wish, UO-O and Impirator didn't close, developement was stopped and they never made it out the door.
MR did close it's doors about 3 weeks before launch. All employees were dismissed and the assets were sold off. It was definately considered a "Big Title" at the time.Imperator was canceled... or "Halted Indefinately"... whatever you want to call it. I'm told by employees previously employed by Mythic it was in Alpha playable state.
the new UOs were nowhere near done... just mentioning them for S&G.
- CaesarsGhost
Lead Gameplay and Gameworld Designer for a yet unnamed MMO Title.
"When people tell me designing a game is easy, I try to get them to design a board game. Most people don't last 5 minutes, the rest rarely last more then a day. The final few realize it's neither fun nor easy."
AC2 (EDIT: I was wrong, it was AC 1 that had these numbers) did indeed reach 120k (EDIT: 50k), but notice I said "reached", past tense (EDIT: I re-read that, I wasn't trying to be trite). It started in Nov 02 and ended in by Dec 05 falling below 10k. (EDIT: AC1 is not dead, though its scrip rate is pretty low)
DAOC on the other hand hit a high of 250k, with active scrips somewhere around 125k as of Jul 06. DAoC is according to this web site one of the highest rated MMO's out there. I have to believe the scrip rate is still in the 100k+ range....
The good news is the DAoC info was good!
Presentation for new MMORPG economics concept http://www.slideshare.net/talin/mmo-economics-concept-v-10
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AC2 was released in Nov 02
According to MMORPGCHART.com , AC2 started out with 50k subscribers, and went steadily downhill from there. Ending up with 5,000 or so when they closed it.
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AC2 was released in Nov 02
According to MMORPGCHART.com , AC2 started out with 50k subscribers, and went steadily downhill from there. Ending up with 5,000 or so when they closed it.
Ah, I see.
Thanks for the info, ghoul31.
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AC2 was released in Nov 02
According to MMORPGCHART.com , AC2 started out with 50k subscribers, and went steadily downhill from there. Ending up with 5,000 or so when they closed it.
Woops your right I was looking at AC 1
Presentation for new MMORPG economics concept http://www.slideshare.net/talin/mmo-economics-concept-v-10
I honestly don't know of any MMORPG that has achieved success and then had to close down. All the dead MMORPGs were pretty much in trouble from day one.
Chris Mattern