Postponed Warhammer game

[megadeath]

Eternal Crusade had failure written all over it from the start (sadly).

Not really. The whole idea of WH40K Planetside was amazing. Sadly it's no longer Planetside, and went to release straight from alpha.

[wiscel]

Even though I went for the captains pack at start I already felt it was going nowhere.

[Karast]

Eternal Crusade had failure written all over it from the start (sadly).

Not really. The whole idea of WH40K Planetside was amazing. Sadly it's no longer Planetside, and went to release straight from alpha.

Saying that it went from alpha is a bit harsh. I would say pre-alpha. The amount of stuff that was cut, and never made it in is just staggering. The game is a shell of the original vision which is pretty much a few maps and a couple of weapons tossed together haphazardly and launched because they simply ran out of time.

It's shocking really.

[sotora]

Saying that it went from alpha is a bit harsh. I would say pre-alpha. The amount of stuff that was cut, and never made it in is just staggering. The game is a shell of the original vision which is pretty much a few maps and a couple of weapons tossed together haphazardly and launched because they simply ran out of time.

It's shocking really.

Not really that shocking when you think about it. It is made by independant studio that wasn't doing any big productions by themself (i.e. not as subcontractors or co-producers).

Now look at Planetside niche. It is small. Planetside 2 isnt' really a massive success and it is only game of it's style available AFAIK and first one that relased in like a decade. So Eternal Crusade Planetside-style would need quite a bit or resources to be made and would have to fight tooth&nails with P2 for small market.

Then gaming population is unwilling or unable atm to pay much for those kind of games in enough numbers. Then how much boxes, subs or microtransactions you need to sell to pay for X years of dozens or (or in case of full fledged Planetisde 2-like big game propably 100+) programmers, graphic artissts, animators, project managers, etc time + pay interest rate for loans/investors & make a nice profit out of it?

Same goes for lack of AAA MMORPGs in production. It simply does not add-up anymore cost, risk vs reward wise. I am not surprised it's dying genres atm.

So it is not really a shocker really that they downsized this project, made a lobby instanced game and released something working out of door.

[megadeath]

Now look at Planetside niche. It is small. Planetside 2 isnt' really a massive success and it is only game of it's style available AFAIK and first one that relased in like a decade. So Eternal Crusade Planetside-style would need quite a bit or resources to be made and would have to fight tooth&nails with P2 for small market.

Firstly Planetside is a pretty bad game that has nothing interesting aside from its scale. Secondly WH40K franchise is a huge deal. So with proper balancing Eternal Crusade could have been a whole new level above Planetside.

Then gaming population is unwilling or unable atm to pay much for those kind of games in enough numbers. Then how much boxes, subs or microtransactions you need to sell to pay for X years of dozens or (or in case of full fledged Planetisde 2-like big game propably 100+) programmers, graphic artissts, animators, project managers, etc time + pay interest rate for loans/investors & make a nice profit out of it?

Actually F2P model is extremely profitable since computing became extremely cheap. Just look at World of Tanks. Or better look at World of Warships. Those guys peak at maybe 40k players online, yet not only roll out new content, but also develop a lot of new technologies.

Same goes for lack of AAA MMORPGs in production. It simply does not add-up anymore cost, risk vs reward wise. I am not surprised it's dying genres atm.

It's because everyone and their grandma want to cash in on World of Warcraft success (WAR is no exception btw).

[kweedko]

I think biggest problem is to make enjoyable combat in modern times/sc-fi MMORPGs as they obviously tend to be very range heavy for obvious reasons.


btw - I just realized that EC already released. Well yeah, not something that I am interested in, no wonder I missed it.

Sure SWTOR or Wildstar SO rangeheavy

[NectaneboII]

Now look at Planetside niche. It is small. Planetside 2 isnt' really a massive success and it is only game of it's style available AFAIK and first one that relased in like a decade. So Eternal Crusade Planetside-style would need quite a bit or resources to be made and would have to fight tooth&nails with P2 for small market.

Firstly Planetside is a pretty bad game that has nothing interesting aside from its scale. Secondly WH40K franchise is a huge deal. So with proper balancing Eternal Crusade could have been a whole new level above Planetside.

Then gaming population is unwilling or unable atm to pay much for those kind of games in enough numbers. Then how much boxes, subs or microtransactions you need to sell to pay for X years of dozens or (or in case of full fledged Planetisde 2-like big game propably 100+) programmers, graphic artissts, animators, project managers, etc time + pay interest rate for loans/investors & make a nice profit out of it?

Actually F2P model is extremely profitable since computing became extremely cheap. Just look at World of Tanks. Or better look at World of Warships. Those guys peak at maybe 40k players online, yet not only roll out new content, but also develop a lot of new technologies.

Same goes for lack of AAA MMORPGs in production. It simply does not add-up anymore cost, risk vs reward wise. I am not surprised it's dying genres atm.

It's because everyone and their grandma want to cash in on World of Warcraft success (WAR is no exception btw).

Every Warhammer game or of the Warhammer franchise has as its first target , the solid mass of the Warhammer enthusiasts.
Economical Failure was triggered to the very flip flop Warhammer Age of Reckoning was . Initially it had a huge sale , after the indecisiveness on the core issues of such a game , everything that came afterwards had its predisposition marked by the recent failure of delivering a game worthy of Warhammer : Fantasy Battles tabletop. lol

[sotora]

Firstly Planetside is a pretty bad game that has nothing interesting aside from its scale. Secondly WH40K franchise is a huge deal. So with proper balancing Eternal Crusade could have been a whole new level above Planetside.

It might be bad, but how sure you are someone can do something better? And even if it's better - will that actually increase gaming population so much that it will be fundamental change? To make it better you must spend more money and I doubt investors are willing seeing that both Planetside 1 and Planetside 2 success was moderate at best.

It's because everyone and their grandma want to cash in on World of Warcraft success (WAR is no exception btw).

Everyone wanted to. No more willing to bank several years of developement of AAA MMORPG to repeat WoW success. Besides to bring big investment money to make AAA game you need a promise of big success. Simple as that.

So it was either we try to make WoW-like success and we get big money or we don't get big money at all.

Now MMORPG industry does not get big money anymore and what you got is indie crowdfunded projects that often border on scam.

Actually F2P model is extremely profitable since computing became extremely cheap. Just look at World of Tanks. Or better look at World of Warships. Those guys peak at maybe 40k players online, yet not only roll out new content, but also develop a lot of new technologies.

1. How many F2P games are so succesful vs overall number of F2P games?

2. Continous developement of lobby pvp game is much cheaper and organisationally easier than for full fledged AAA MMORPG that has to deal with much wider range of issues and provide wider range of content. Besides World of Warships is bankrolled by WoT.

3. Those games you mentioned as succesful games are lobby instanced games exactly like final version of Eternal Crusade.

[sotora]

I think biggest problem is to make enjoyable combat in modern times/sc-fi MMORPGs as they obviously tend to be very range heavy for obvious reasons.


btw - I just realized that EC already released. Well yeah, not something that I am interested in, no wonder I missed it.

Sure SWTOR or Wildstar SO rangeheavy

Both those universums are fantasy not modern/sc-fi.

Star Wars is basically traditional heroic fantasy story. Sure horses are named fighters, magic is named force and swords are glowing and making 'bzzzz' sound but it is fantasy. Knights, pricesses, big scary emperor and all that.


Now try to make TPP MMORPG game in a real world-like universum or "serious" sc-fi one. You had such tries like Firefall or Defiance. Fun combat system NOT.

[megadeath]

Firstly Planetside is a pretty bad game that has nothing interesting aside from its scale. Secondly WH40K franchise is a huge deal. So with proper balancing Eternal Crusade could have been a whole new level above Planetside.

It might be bad, but how sure you are someone can do something better? And even if it's better - will that actually increase gaming population so much that it will be fundamental change? To make it better you must spend more money and I doubt investors are willing seeing that both Planetside 1 and Planetside 2 success was moderate at best.

Thats the main problem of gaming industry today. The only profitable projects are shameless cash grabs aimed at casuals and console peasants. And Im not talking only about MMOs. Just look at CoD/BF.

Same goes for lack of AAA MMORPGs in production. It simply does not add-up anymore cost, risk vs reward wise. I am not surprised it's dying genres atm.

It's because everyone and their grandma want to cash in on World of Warcraft success (WAR is no exception btw).

Everyone wanted to. No more willing to bank several years of developement of AAA MMORPG to repeat WoW success. Besides to bring big investment money to make AAA game you need a promise of big success. Simple as that.

And because the only thing everyone did was to copy WoW the past 10 years the MMO genre is now dead. Nobody bothered with original ideas.

So it was either we try to make WoW-like success and we get big money or we don't get big money at all.

Exactly this. Publishers don't want just profits anymore. They want megaprofits. If they game doesn't bring 1 billion $ profit it aint worth developing. Same as movie industry nowadays.

Actually F2P model is extremely profitable since computing became extremely cheap. Just look at World of Tanks. Or better look at World of Warships. Those guys peak at maybe 40k players online, yet not only roll out new content, but also develop a lot of new technologies.

1. How many F2P games are so succesful vs overall number of F2P games?

2. Continous developement of lobby pvp game is much cheaper and organisationally easier than for full fledged AAA MMORPG that has to deal with much wider range of issues and provide wider range of content. Besides World of Warships is bankrolled by WoT.

3. Those games you mentioned as succesful games are lobby instanced games exactly like final version of Eternal Crusade.

1. LoL, Hearthstone, Dota2, World of Tanks, PoE, TF2, Warframe, War Thunder. First ones that came to my head.

2. Session MMOs require less writing, but a lot more technical research. But there is a catch. Session MMOs are hosted on one server cluster unlike classic MMOs. Also session MMOs require everything to be calculated serverside, which is not the issue with classic MMOs

3. They're still MMOs