Great market opportunity for MMO's developersFollow

The MMO seems a pretty open market right now in my opinion. Rift has done pretty well recently, I'm a little unsure on subscriber figures but its maintained popularity (on my server at least). Unfortunately it's too much of more of the same at the moment, if they can release some innovating stuff in the near future in content patches the game will do well, if not the game will die off quickly.

Warcraft's quality control has let them down a lot in recent times and they are due for there most "minor" major content patch soon. A year of the same end game content in Wrath, lazy designers and very slow content flow has crept into the most recent expansion Cataclysm; not forgetting WoW's engine its self is outdated in terms of today's technology. I still have an active account but I find myself only occasionally playing with a friend with very little interest in the game any more. My battle.net friends list is desolate now after having an active list, very few log in now.

Guild Wars has increased in popularity for sure in recent months. I find myself in a very active guild there now and it surprises me. It definitely seems more a glorified chat client though! I log on sometimes to slowly tackle the task of filling my hall of monuments as I and I'm sure many wait for the release of Guild Wars 2. But it remains a game with the same content and the introduction of the HoM achievements and the growing number of players suggests it is down to people simply waiting and preparing for the new game and not a surge of players craving for Guild Wars 1 gameplay.

DC Universe in my opinion was a failure. I played the game for the first month and literally completed the game, it wasn't a bad play through but for a MMO had very little to occupy me past levelling. It was rushed out and to be honest should have not been a subscription game. I can't see how they could justify one of the most expensive monthly fees for a MMORPG surpassing WoW and Rift's £9 a month. Maybe they could have sold a few more copies in that case too, I certainly had a few friends interested in the game but put off by the fact of a subscription to play.

Guild Wars 2 certainly should be a 9/10 game with the hype and pressure arenaNet has burdened on their shoulders. I'm sure it will do well with sales in terms of players new and old to MMO's interest by the fact its a massive game with no monthly fee, play when you like! But it still leaves the people willing to splash out their cash for a monthly fee game. It would certainly look a good platform for The Old Republic (or any other MMO) to begin, but from some whispers The O R isn't as nice as you would expect (yet).

The time for a well designed and innovating MMO to strike any time in the next years could look to take the majority share of the market with no one doing themselves a favour currently in the market. I guess only time will tell!

Edited, Apr 26th 2011 9:31pm by Kernave

Edited, Apr 26th 2011 9:34pm by Kernave