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Turbine to invest 50 million with a 2007 graphically superior remake of ASHERONS CALL!
radlin
Member Posts: 266
Money Magazine Insider June 2006.
"Turbine Inc to invest some 50 million to re-release the 1999 Asherons Call with a competitive graphics complete overhaul. Turbine is rumored to be using the Half-Life 2 engine rebuilt for online play. More to come with Turbine executives to release information on their website in the coming months."
"Turbine Inc to invest some 50 million to re-release the 1999 Asherons Call with a competitive graphics complete overhaul. Turbine is rumored to be using the Half-Life 2 engine rebuilt for online play. More to come with Turbine executives to release information on their website in the coming months."
Comments
Total time played: 9125 Days, 21 Hours, 29 Minutes, 27 Seconds
Time played this level: 39 Days, 1 Hour, 24 Minutes, 5 Seconds
No longer visiting MMORPG.com.
Funny, considering its still MAY.
whats next?
D&DO meets 1 million subscribers?
I think not.
Couple things.
1.) Magazines DO come out ahead of time. IE: I currently am reading the June version of gameinformer, and the June version of time magazine.
2.) There is a money magazine.
Not saying what he says is true, just try and become edumacated before posting dumbass REMARKS.
Someone who doesn't get magazines.
Turbine made $10 million in 2004; if you combine alot of the money they made then they just might be able to make a graphically superior Asheron's Call with an invested 50 million which is more then I ever heard of for production costs on an mmo.
Also Source engine really isn't going to be graphically superior in 2007 considering the technology was made in 2004. It has several problems related to mmo's; especially in how long it takes to simply load in assets. With that kinda cash I woulda went for the Unreal 3 engine since that one is alot easier to work with and has a more friendly UI with easier asset uploading; and is build well to be edited and modded.
I think I remember turbine saying they would make a graphically superior Asheron's Call before, and from what I remember it was one of the quickest commercial mmo's to shut down.
If this is true.. I AM IN.
I never played AC but I've heard great things about it and the only reason I haven't tried it was because it was before my time, graphically speaking.
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Being an old AC player and lover of the Darktide server, I checked out Turbines homepages for any hint of such information and found nothing. I also did a google search for Money Insider and found nothing, but I have an uncle who DID confirm that Money magazine does indeed have a special bi-monthly issue for subscribers that has all kinds of odds and ends info, but he said he couldn't confirm Junes issue yet as he has yet to recieve it himself.
So I called Turbine. A representitive that I talked to by the name of "Wade" said while he didn't have any specific information on the topic, but he DOES know that there will indeed be a complete overhaul and revamp of the Asherons Call game!
Ummm, so tell me that this IS indeed true!! WOOOOT! Slap my grandma! Kick meh in da nuts! Yipeee!
I just hope they overhaul the graphics and make some all new worlds for a fresh start and don't make a complete game mechanics change. ...Maybe make the mobs wander instead of sitting idle. That would be just grand.
To me this is by far the BEST news in the mmo community in many years! Go Turbine! It's about time you give up on trying to re-invent the wheel and using big names like Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings and went back to the almost perfect mmo game you designed back in '99! I can't wait!
Hopefully more info will come forth soon!
- Zaxx
What? Am I dreaming? Are my prayers about to be answered? Do they understand that we want a game VERY similar to the original Asheron's Call and NOT AC2??!!
Thanks for calling Turbine on this and getting the scoop.
BTW, I used to subscribe to "Money" magazine and by subscription you receive the magazine about three weeks ahead of schedule (June issue will be received in May, for example). Fifty million sounds a bit much but if they indeed put THAT kind of money into a resurrection of ye olde Asheron's Call then...
*drumroll*
I AM THERE!!!
Perhaps this time we can pull in some new players who can experience the real glory of the Shadow Wars, Bael'Zharon, Frore, the Direlands, Fort Tethana, Tuskers, Umbris Shadows, etc., ALL in a seamless, beautiful yet dangerous world.
Hebian-To, Lytelthorpe, Cragstone, Arwic, the portals (and portal storms, I'd give a lot to get portal stormed again!), the zillion dungeons -- hey, if you were there in the early days you know what I mean. TOO MANY special places and special memories to even list.
Make it a new game, wipe ALL servers and start again all new. Yes. Just do it.
~ Ancient Membership ~
So, now assuming that the $50 million investment stuff is also a legit figure... my question is WHY SO MUCH??
How would it really cost that massive of an amount? ...and secondly if it did indeed cost near 50 million, would Turbine be able to recover the costs in a relatively short time?
Perhaps they are having to pay a lot of money for what-ever engine they plan to use and mold it for use with AC. Or maybe the investment would be huge because of all the textures, objects, and creatures that would have to be completely updated with such a highly polygon count. I dunno.
All I do know is that IF this all occurs, they must also spend some kinda money on advertising this way ahead of time. I mean really, we should be finding out about such a project from all kinds of ads from Turbine... not people reading "Money" magazine or having to call Turbine and beg for such info tidbits.
Word of mouth can do wonders, but advertising would sure help this project I would tend to think.
I just don't wanna see this fail because I fear that Turbine has likely lost millions on D&D Online and probably will lose huge on LoTR Online as well. I doubt they could afford to lose huge bucks on an AC overhaul and re-release as well.. I'm betting that this overhaul of AC will either be the end of Turbine or the refreshing of Turbine into a major player in the mmo market again.
- Zaxx
Hmmm, the way I see it, if this report is true, then a figure like $50 million does not represent buying a new graphics engine, but sounds much more like the entire development costs to remake the game from scratch.
That would include hardware, software, salaries, Mountain Dew, etc.
I remember the days of the Big Three (yes, people really called it that): Ultima Online, EverQuest and Asheron's Call (not really "big" in terms of the other games' subscription numbers, but was also not small).
Another thought, I don't believe (could be wrong) that Turbine would bankroll the entire 50 mill (if, in fact, this figure is reported correctly), but instead seems like they have corralled some "deep pockets" investors.
This is what I would think.
~ Ancient Membership ~
50 million can't possibly be correct, it's a ludicrous
number. I'm not saying it couldn't possibly earn that investment back,
just that there's no point in dumping that much cash into it. The return
on an investment that high won't be much better than a 15 or 20 mill investment
(Unless they're just going to attempt something completely unheard of in game
development).
I'm not necessarily saying the rumor is false either; it can easily be
misquoted, misprinted, or referencing something other than the game budget.
Or maybe someone threw out a ballpark figure that the reporter took too
literally, who knows. Just makes very little financial sense to throw
that much money at a game's - at any game's - development.
The morning sun has vanquished the horrible night.
Not saying it is not true, but you would think something would have come out of E3 about it.
Just food for thought
Let me squash this rumor right here, right now...
Sadly, Frelorn the AC community relations forum admin just stated that this is nothing but a rumor on the AC forums.
AC forums thread
Umm, I did call and was told it was indeed being revamped graphically but the guy handled billing I think.. perhaps he was just confused about last years graphics revamp??? Argh. I'm sad.
- Zaxx
http://forums.ac.turbinegames.com/showthread.php?t=29575
I also hope that they re-create AC with new servers, New graphics, and New quests but keep the game mechanics the same. AC was some of the best times I ever had in a video game and I still feel no MMORPG's out there have come close to its gloary.... well at least untill the point where Turbine flushed AC down the toilet.
If they do re-make I hope they roll it back and patch it through up to tinkering or just fix the balance issues and problems that came after the tinkering patch. After the tinkering patch the game was finished and it only got worst from there. I think with the new MMORPG population out there if they where to see some of the things that where done in the past in AC like Bal, Teth, Tuskers, Shadow's, all that stuff it would really open there eyes.
All though if Turbine screws up the remake I hope they do go down the toilet for destorying AC all over agian. Even though i'm a HUGE fan of the old AC the people who started it have long left the company and the new people running turbine are the biggest sell out's ever and couldn't find a oringal idea if there life depended on it. Even if someone surgically managed to remove there heads out of there ass, I'd still be worried for the new AC.
me
I'm sorry this is a hoax. It cost only $25-$30 million to make EQ2. Why the hell would Turbine blow FIFTY MILLION on a graphics overhaul of a game that has less than 50k subscribers? They'd never recoup that money.
Go read the official AC Forums. They've already debunked the rumor.
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Good point.
Even if such a revamp and re-release took AC up to 100k subscribers... then at $15 per month, that would be 1.5 million per month, meaning that they'd need about 3 years at 100k subscribers to take in a gross of $50 million.
Ofcourse, if somehow they advertised the hell out of such a game, and didn't mess the great game they have up with tons of BS instancing and crap... I could honestly see them netting atleast 250,000 subscribers within 6 months or a years time.. possibly more - especially in todays huge mmo marker where millions of players are getting hooked on mmos. Even at only 250,000 subscribers, they could bring back in 50 million in a little over years time. 500,000 subscribers for about 7 months would do the same.
It would be possible. But sadly, Turbine is too busy making crappy instanced mmos and insulting great names like Dungeons and Dragons and Lord of the Rings with stupid games instead of just working on making their golden "baby" better. I really wish it were true. I'm still sad. Damn rumors.
- Zaxx
If this is True,then Turbine, I Luv you,set up an order page asap,i am ready to pre-order 3 of them-WOOT!
Lothlore
If that kind of money were to be spent on an existing MMORPG I think Everquest and Ultima Online would be good choices as well.
I personally think there has been a stagnation of mmorpgs, that the new ones are more of the same.
I think the time is ripe to revamp an old game with completely updated graphics. I think if Everquest were to overhaul its graphics I would try it. If UO went 3-d with a new engine I would sign up for sure.