A lot have tried and ”failed miserably,” but the core play and business model of MMOs ”hasn’t changed that much” even for the successes.
”I don’t think it’s changed that much if you really think about it. Before World of Warcraft, Everquest was the most successful. Then WoW came along and built on it in the past five years,” boss Madureira told GamesIndustry.biz.
”A lot of people have entered the fray and failed miserably, but I don’t think that core of the way MMOs play, or the business model in general - for the most successful ones - it really hasn’t changed that much. At least not in the US.”
Vigil Games recently released Darksiders for Xbox 360 and PS3 to much acclaim, and has also been working on THQ’s upcoming Warhammer 40k MMO.
”There are a lot of different payment plans and things that people are testing out, and just social gaming in general is becoming really huge now, but I think for that core MMO audience - the guys that played EQ and are now playing WoW - will be playing the next big game, whatever that is… probably 40K,” he added, smiling.
”It’s a pretty steady pattern - it hasn’t changed that much.” Let’s hope Vigil’s take on Warhammer 40k fairs much better than EA Mythic’s Warhammer MMO, which saw numbers swell in the beginning but bleed out over time.
Does predefined lore such as the legacy of Warhammer 40k make it easier or harder? Vigil general manager David Adams believes it’s better: ”It’s plus or minus.”
”On the good side Games Workshop has a really good pulse on what’s cool, so there are buckets of raw, cool content. If you just flick through the books and read random content, or look at the pictures, there’s definitely a lot of inspiration to be had there.”
”Overall I think it’s a huge benefit - you can’t escape the fact that it’s got 25 years of history - all the different races, the way the Empire works… and it’s interesting. It’s great fodder for games.” Has the THQ MMO got your Space Marine blood pumping?
