WarCry - State of the MMOG

WarCry turns to the debate on the condition of today's MMOG indutry. They have talked with - among others - President of SOE, John Smedley and GM of ZeniMax Online Studios, Matt Firor:

"It's pretty bleak right now!" explained Daron Stinnett, formerly Executive Producer of the ill-fated Star Trek Online. "If you take a look at the games in the shadow of WoW, you'll find a pack of MMOs that have managed to hold onto one or two hundred thousand subscribers."

It was a sentiment shared by most of those we spoke to. It's obvious that World of Warcraft has the market by the throat and have become perhaps the only truly global game in the MMO-space. That means some tough realities for the games in the next tier.

"[MMOs are in a] state of unrest, right now," said Matt Firor, General Manager of ZeniMax Online Studios, a sister company of Bethesda. "World of Warcraft is ruling the subscription game market, and no one wants to compete with them directly, so they go off for niche markets."

Chantel Zuurmond, Game Designer for CCP Game's EVE Online, agreed: "I think any game that wants to coexist with WoW and do well should try to cater to a niche."

This leaves developers and investors with a choice. They either run at the colossus that is WoW head-on, or they do as Zuurmond suggests and try and carve out a unique - but smaller - niche.

"Publishers and developers look at the 10 million-plus subscribers and can't help but want a piece of the action," noted Steve Butts, IGN PC's Executive Editor.

Over the last two years, a slew of MMOs have hit the shelves and failed utterly. Games like Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, Vanguard and many more were all big budget, retail subscription MMOs with loads of marketing dollars behind them that have either fallen off the face of the Earth or settled into a small niche. Clearly, the most recent generation of MMOs hasn't been doing enough to fire the imagination of gamers.

Source: Blues News