It has been a bad year or two for the MMO industry. A number of high profile MMOs closed down, and a few more are hanging by a thread. Others started with million+ sales (Age of Conan, Warhammer) and have since dwindled to around 100,000 subscribers.
What happens to the players when an MMO dies? Do they simply move on to another MMO? Do they go to WoW? Do they become fed up with the whole genre?
Losing your favorite MMO is worse in many ways than having a favorite TV show get cancelled. You can't load up the DVD and watch it all over again. When the MMO closes up, its gone. Your characters are gone. Unless someone sets up a pirate server (which is rare), its over.
How does this affect the industry, and how do players cope?
Before Flagship Studios, there was Blizzard North. Originally known as Condor, the Redwood-based studio was acquired in 1997 by Blizzard Entertainment. At the time, Blizzard North was hard at work on the development of the game that would be the cornerstone of everything that came after: Diablo.
IGN : Remember Hellgate: London? The dark fantasy action role-playing game came out in 2007 for PC, a year before developer Flagship Studios went bankrupt. Since then, various free-to-play and online revivals have come and gone. Now, 17 years after the release of Hellgate: London, it’s back.
I remember some friends and I all bought Hellgate: London day one because it was made by some original Diablo devs. We had fun playing it, good memories.
Gaming culture as a whole has always been one of the main sources of inspiration for the whole Matrix universe, and it’s only fair that, upon the franchise’s return to the big screen, gamers should get a piece of the green-tinted action too.
Roper is doing his best to flagship Champions Online as well.
Insane respec costs.
Nerfs every few days.
Ugh.
Just goes to show you what happens when a finite number of people are given too many options.
Man, I remember reading all the hype about Tabula Rasa too!