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So what happens if this is a niche title?
SOE has now effectively killed 4 more MMO communities off. This time they were breaking records, announcing all four closings at the same time.
You can find the full post and comments here.
- Free Realms: This game has been a true labor of love at SOE and we’ve experienced amazing memories with our players over the years. The game has reached a point in its life cycle where players are moving on to other games. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished with this game and have unwavering praise for our players who joined us along the way. The game will sunset on March 31, 2014. For more info, visit: https://forums.station.sony.
com/freerealms/index.php? threads/with-heavy-hearts-we- announce-the-sunset-of-free- realms.40323/ - Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures: The game is now at a stage in its cycle where players are growing up and moving on so we have mutually agreed with LucasArts to sunset the game on March 31, 2014. We will be sending the game off in an exciting way that players would come to expect for this epic franchise. For more info, visit: https://forums.station.sony.
com/clonewars/index.php? threads/with-heavy-hearts-we- announce-the-sunset-of-clone- wars-adventures.18224/ - Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: As one of our longest running games, this was a difficult decision that wasn’t taken lightly. As a company, our mission is to deliver the best online worlds, but given the decreasing player population we cannot justify the resources required to support and update this game in a way our players deserve. With the increasing technical challenges involved in updating this older game, we would be doing our players a disservice as these are issues that cannot be resolved in the long term. The game will sunset on July 31, 2014. For more info, visit: https://forums.station.sony.
com/vg/index.php?threads/with- heavy-hearts-we-announce-the- sunset-for-vanguard.71211/ - Wizardry Online: We have mutually agreed with our partners at Gamepot to sunset this hardcore fantasy MMORPG based on the Wizardry franchise on July 31, 2014. The opportunity to bring this storied franchise to players across North America was a great honor, and we thank the players for the battles and experiences we’ve celebrated together in the game. For more info, visit: https://forums.station.sony.
com/wo/index.php?threads/with- great-regret-we-announce-your- wizardry-journey-is-coming-to- an-end.4771/
A few weeks back SOE announced they were going to lower the cost of the Station Pass, so that you could play their entire game lineup for the cost of one. At that time there was no indication of any games closing.
Now they slither back and murder four titles in the night. Two of which had decent sized player bases, that were also very loyal.
So what gives with SOE? How many active players do they require not to kill off their titles? Are they incapable of letting titles cruise along with 50k players and a minimal staff? I know titles out there with much fewer players, that still sail along with monthly updates (I'm looking at you Asheron's Call).
If a game can be maintained with minimal staff, makes people happy and makes someone money, why close it?
This isn't like it was with Star Wars Galaxies, part of the blame could be placed on Lucas Arts... This time around though, it all sits on SOE's shoulders.
Personally, I have trouble trusting SOE with my beloved characters.
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Which two had decent sized player bases? Free realms and the Star Wars one? Vanguard certainly wasn't one of them.
SoE often runs their games at a loss (Vanguard was confirmed to be ran at a loss). they ran EQMac at a loss for years too.
You mean a niche like eve ?
Other than wow almost every mmo probably would have been more successful if they targeted a smaller niche of player types
EverQuest Next: Landmark is a Niche title, it pertains to a couple of player bases but not all. It's a sandbox, sure features will come along but the basis of this game is creativity and building. No this game will NOT beat other mmo markets (Rift, WoW, GW2) but it will allow a path to EQN which I personally think is going to be "the next big thing". I think EQN:L will be much like Minecraft, and have a huge following. But to be honest I think EQN:L will be one of those games you pick up and play. But hey, we haven't heard all the features of the game so who knows
Like most MMOs you had to gauge it by playing it. All they would tell you with Free Realms is that it had 20 million registered users.
If they are running any of those titles at a loss, it means they don't know how to manage them effectively with lower populations. There are numerous titles with lower sub numbers than any of these SOE games, that still manage to make money and employee a small staff.
Ultimately... I am positive they were making cash flow with Free Realms (at the least) and I have no idea what their real reason for killing it is.
They kinda killed off their line of games that kids could play with parents.Your original premise is skewed. Everything is a niche until it becomes mainstream. Just on the premise that they are doing everything new and different means that until enough players come. Until it is used to define a genre. Until it is a household name. It is still and will remain a niche.
But that isn't a bad thing. Many indie games are extreamly fun. EQN and EQNL look extreamly promising. All that matters is if the game is fun and you get some sort of enjoyment out of it.
i'm expecting Landmark to be more popular than EQ1 or EQ2
should probably be at least 300k active players
EQ2 fan sites
i was surprised by that move too
considering FreeRealms is available on both PC and PS3
EQ2 fan sites
Op
same thing that is happening to Smedleys last triumph.....PlanetSide 2.
I'm pretty sure Free Realms was not profitable. It would make absolutely zero sense to close a profitable game. So either it had a small player base or the cash shop was not interesting enough to get anyone buy anything from it.
Star Wars was certainly losing money and that's easy to believe with Disney/Lucasarts pulling big bucks from the license.
Vanguard has probably been making a loss for years now.
Wizardry Online was one of the shittiest MMOs released, ever. I tried it and uninstalled in 15 minutes. Anyone paying for that crap should have their computer confiscated for supporting bad games.
Now back to topic. I would not be surprised if EQN:L will live to see the end of all other EQ titles, including EQN. There is no limit to human imagination and if you give people tools to realize that imagination, there is no reason to get bored with that game, ever. The only threat would be a similar sandbox offering the same quality and freedom, of which we have zero on the horizon now.
The only thing that can go wrong with EQN:L is that the cash shop will not offer anything worth buying, but with the player studio and limitless content, there's bound to be stuff that people want to buy. Look at TF2 and the ridiculous amount of hats it's selling.
I honestly believe SOE has hit the winning formula with EQN:L. Mainly because there is no need to add dev-made content to the game. Just make robust tools and let the players have at them. Watch them build the content themselves. Take a cut. Profit.
I can't see many scenarios where this could backfire badly. It's just a surefire winner. Will it make money like WoW? Maybe not, probably not. Will it make enough money to cover dev costs and let them create us new tools to play with? Most probably yes.
Well it obviously would require that the new game will also use the voxel engine and have similar cartoony art style.
It will be a niche title in my opinion. Everquest has a history with mmo players - and there isn't a huge amount of mmo players who just want a Minecraft simulator. Non mmo players play Minecraft more so those are who they need to target the most, but a lot of them will be turned off by the Everquest name in my opinion. Here's where your mmorpg.com site sits with it compared to other games, and I highly doubt it would be different results in other places.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/403339/page/1
No that's not what I meant. I meant that if they would want to bring player creations from Landmark, they would look pretty awkward when ported over if the games didn't share similar graphics style.
This was the best part. SoE may have surprised everyone with the closures but they did not do it under the radar. Smed announced he would be on Reddit to answer any questions after the announcement and to answer other questions. The replies about Free Realms were actually intriguing.
http://www.reddit.com/r/EQNext/comments/1w2lu2/im_john_smedley_president_of_soe_amaa/
I think with the popularity of Minecraft, paired with the EQ tag, I am going to agree with you. It should be a very good cash cow for SOE.
Yo can bet on it. They will use very much the same technology as they will use for EQN(my guess)... just with a different touch to it, to target another audience. (Voxels, Storybrick.. they are just very good foundations, tools to make MMOs, MMOs where you can actually interact a little bit more with the world the environment)
Two of them were for kids and have more than run their course. One was just horrible from the start (Wizardry) and the other was just too difficult for them to maintain (Vanguard).
Anyone who plays Vanguard will tell you that they have massive lag issues and things they just cannot fix with the game. On top of that, it never really achieved a reasonable player base, obviously F2P wasn't helping bring in the cash either.
Will EQN and EQNL stop being viable one day and shut down? Possibly, but they let Vanguard go on for well over 5 years of miniscule population before pulling the plug (Vanguard just celebrated its 7th anniversary). Also its flagship game EQ has been running for 15 years now. I don't think you have much to worry about.