In December of 2006, I wrote about two of the new challengers in MMOGs: Red 5 Studios and Green Monster Games(renamed 38 Studios). Neither of these studios has yet released any product as a good MMOG takes about 5 years to construct.
With CES this week in Las Vegas, Schilling has been talking up a storm about 38 Studios and the MMOG project "Copernicus". Working now with Todd MacFarlane and R.A. Salvatore (an announcement made prior to Comic Con last year, which I apparently missed), 38 Studios is definitely going for some major geek cred with these two names. However, a look at past computer gaming projects with these two names reveals some gaming disappointments. R.A. Salvatore , is well known for the Forgotten Realms AD&D setting, has put his mark on some of videogame adaptations in that world. Todd McFarlane, the creator of Spawn, was associated with the canceled Ultima Online 2 project. It doesn't mean that these two can't finally produce a good product, but past experience has shown that when you bank on big names to sell your game, those games tend to suck. While at this point I have little faith in 38 Studios, I'll wait and see what they produce.
Red 5 Studios is still alive and kicking, partnering with WebZen for a MMOG. You can ascertain quite a bit about the status of an organization by looking at their job listings, and it seems that Red 5 is in desperate need of some fresh blood, as nearly every position available is a requirement for making a MMOG.
Both of these studios are well funded, but I believe that despite this, Red 5 will be the first out with product, and I don't expect that product to be successful in the United States.
On my deathwatch list of MMOG companies is Perpetual Entertainment, which had obtained the license for a Star Trek MMO, and was working on their own game called "Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising". Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising has now been canceled, and Perpetual Entertainment, Inc. was dissolved and assets transferred to Perpetual LLC. All of this definitely sends up all the warning flags that in order to survive, the company has to focus.
I think as far as MMOGs go, while there have been some new releases, what ends up happening is that people keep returning to World of Warcraft, because it's what's familiar to them, and that's where they've spent the most time, and I think it'll be some time before people get bored enough of World of Warcraft to try other games.
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