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MMORPG.COM News: Codemasters Online Group
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Codemasters has announced the formation of a new online gaming division. This move from the former power behind Dragon Empires should indicate an imminent return to the MMORPG-space.
Codemasters forms new online gaming division to target core and casual online gamers.
Codemasters Online Group established, series of MMO deals to be announced, unique casual gaming portal planned. Friday 1st July (10am UK time) Codemasters, the leading developer and publisher of critically acclaimed video games, has expanded its development and publishing operations with the formation of Codemasters Online Gaming, a new division that will drive the companys interests in the online marketplace. Focussing on Massively Multiplayer Online and online casual gaming, the division has been formed as an addition to the companys console and PC boxed product operations. David Solari has been appointed as Director of Codemasters Online Gaming, with responsibility for all business and product opportunities within the online space. Solari was previously Codemasters PC Group Brand Manger, working on titles such as Operation Flashpoint and Soldiers. Under Solari, the division is preparing an online casual games portal as its first initiative to attract the mass-market online gamer. For the core online gaming audience, a series of publishing and operation deals for major MMO gaming products will be announced shortly. Other senior appointments in the division include Phil Vortal White as Head of Massively Multiplayer Gaming, Nick Pili as Head of Internet Gaming, Ed Relf as Head of Codemasters Online Gaming Marketing and Adam Hance as Head of Interactive Marketing. Says David Solari, Head of Codemasters Online Group: "The Online Group has been assigned a significant investment to drive our plans in this major growth area of the business. Codemasters has a very serious interest in online gaming and one that covers a broad scope, with titles and initiatives that will target the core and casual online gamer." |
It should be quite interesting to see what comes of this new division.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
so in other words: they flush Dragon Empires down the drain without a second thought.....
then they see Blizzard rack up some serious subscription numbers....
and now they've got dollar signs in their eyes.......$$$$$$$
I am truly humbled by their capacity to see the painfully obvious potential of these games
better late than never.
Talk about a day late and a dollar short!
Good luck trying to earn our trust back.
.....................................
...but time flows like a river...
...and history repeats...
-Leader of "The Fighting Irish" in DAoC on Hib/Kay-
Right on lunar_knight!
To me Codemasters had there shot with Dragon Empires.
beeing someone that was involved in DE right from the start. i was equally dissapointed when the game was sacked. perhaps based on some ifnormation and my background i however do understand why it happend. Now some poeple at Codemasters spend the past 8 months to think up a strategy on how to move forward in the new emersive online gameing area, and i actually belive they are headed the right way. they got themselves prepared, put good folks in the right spot (noticed Phil White?) and are realy to move.
i give them another chance.
Dhirmadi: Shade of the Moon : Clan Leader
I wonder if there is a chance that they revive DE. It was a massive dissappointment to me when the snuffed it.
(Not so great a dissappointment as Wish, tho
)
i doubt that they will revive it as DE. they might get another project going and reuse some of the ideas.. restarting DE would bring too much reference to a failed project.
Dhirmadi: Shade of the Moon : Clan Leader
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Yes, it should be interesting to see what becomes of this. I also was an early Dragon Empires fan but was disapointed with the lack of forethought into the consequences of some design elements. In addition they did not seem to have the programming skills needed to pull off a MMOG.
So now they are trying to get back into the online world not by making an MMORPG but by making a PORTAL for CASUAL gamers. With 2 marketing managers and two game managers under David Solari I suspect we will see some sort of 3D chat interface with lots of advertisements and links to rather simplistic (short) online games (perhaps from small indipendent developers?). The portal would handle the billing.
Only Phil White has been tasked with creating an MMORPG out of the 5 but I suspect that will be a long time in coming.
You know how happy I hear about this. I love Codemasters, they had great titles (example: Operation Flashpoint, Second Sight and some others). I also were with my clan waiting for DE, and when we heared that it was canceld we didn't believed it and later we were dissapointed. Maybe some know me of The Red Lions (We had 100+ members).
We'll see which game there will be coming out soon, maybe they still have DE somewhere so they contineu on that 1 :P.
You will not shake us off,
above or below..