Neverwinter has clear links back to the lessons Cryptic Studios has learned with their previous titles. Continue reading »
Filed under Alpha / Beta …
Kickstander: From Code Hero to Zero
The Escapist is reporting a story of a Kickstarter video game project where the project leader may have spent all the raised money and halted the project. Unfortunately, that’s part of the nature of crowdfunding. Continue reading »
Great MMO Collapses of Our Time – Destination Games
You can get excited now, because if you picked this option, you’ve decided to back Destination Games! Destination Games Game That Destroyed Them: Tabula Rasa Studio Launch Date: April 2000 Studio Closure Date: 28 February 2009 Invested In By: NCsoft Estimated Money Blown: US$106m Cause of Death: Restarting the project, internal culture of fear and secrecy, … Continue reading »
Great MMO Company Collapses of Our Time – RealTime Worlds
If you selected this option, congratulations – you decided to back RealTime Worlds! RealTime Worlds Game That Destroyed Them: All Points Bulletin (APB) Studio Launch Date: Early 2002 Studio Closure Date: September 2010 Invested In By: Private investors Estimated Money Blown: Over US$100m Cause of Death: Spending all the budget before the game had even launched, … Continue reading »
Path Finding and Kick Starting
As previously discussed, I’m fairly cynical of Kickstarter for video game development. Backers see it as supporting something they are interested in; I see it as companies leveraging off their previous reputation and gamer hope to get money gifted to them. Because that’s what the money is: a gift. Once the pledge target is met … Continue reading »
Reviewing My 2011 MMO Predictions
Time to see how right I was back when I wrote the following predictions about how things would turn MMO-wise in 2011. F2P titles continue to enter the market and other existing MMOs are likely to join them. Warhammer Online is a distinct possibility, as are titles in the position of Vanguard and Fallen Earth: … Continue reading »
The Secret World: Great Facepalm Moments in Marketing Betas, Part 2
The first beta facepalm moment of The Secret World (TSW) beta sign up showed that Funcom wasn’t thinking about how they’d be perceived when they “broke” their own beta registration. This next moment shows that they aren’t really thinking about TSW in its beta promotions much at all. The second stage of registering for TSW’s … Continue reading »
The Very, Very Late 2010 MMO Recap: Here Comes the New Stuff, Same As the Old Stuff
(All you have is my word that I haven’t made any substantive revisions to this document since January 30, 2011. Trust me. I’m a blogger. For a point-by-point recap of 2010, see either the January to June or the July to December articles.) 2010 was an interesting year for the MMO industry in that it … Continue reading »
How Many Players Does CoH/V Have In Q4 2010?
NCsoft’s Q4 2010 results are out and the result isn’t great for City of Heroes / Villains. As I discussed a few days ago, CoH/V saw a big Q3 2010 release with Going Rogue, its second paid box expansion (City of Villains being the first, back in 2005). GoRo saw a large jump in revenue … Continue reading »
My Last DCUO Post For A While, Really
DC Universe Online launched on Tuesday 11 January 2011, the culmination of 5.5 years and US$50m in development costs. Barring any major events, I’m going to try to lay off direct DCUO posts for a while – I’m not playing it and yelling from the sidelines gets a bit dull. Plus, I’ve got other things … Continue reading »
