Colin Stevens2 More MMO's To Shut Down?
August 12th 2008 23:48
RUMOUR: Joystiq reports that the latest culling of MMO's will be occuring within NCsoft, with a "reliable source" within the company stating that they are on the verge of laying off the entire development team, leading the title Dungeon Runner to "be closed" and the fate of Tabula Rasa in the air.
The recent demise of the Australian developed MMOPvPRPG Fury has highlighted the cut-throat nature of the market. Even the legendary Richard Garriott may not be able to save his latest brainchild. In fact, Massively is suggesting that Guild Wars creator Arena.net will take over the reigns of Tabula Rasa where it may linger until a similarly grim future awaits it if it "fails to turn the tide of subscribers and expectations." It has also learned that any future collaboration between NCsoft and Tabula Rasa principals Richard and Robert Garriot will be "limited in scope," due to a souring of relations with the Korean management team over their title's lackluster performance.
Fourtunately, the success of City Of Heroes looks to save it from the chopping block according to a source at NCsoft's Bay Area studio.
It would seem that the rewards for a successful MMO are huge and this will cause more developers to sink resources into developing new titles. But with even the big names such as Star Wars and LOTR failing to reap adequate rewards, perhaps the MMO future is set to stay a one horse town?
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Comment by Shaun Inguanzo
Blogocratic Nightmare
I'd rather have a few, quality MMOs on the market, each with a good number of players, rather than tens of the things each with fewer players.
Perhaps developers will realise that you can't just cash in by re-skinning WoW and keeping similar mechanics - we gamers want more!
Comment by OnlineWriter
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