February 13, 2012 – MMO Fallout

Remember last week when Square Enix announced the details of their server merger? Well who says that Square doesn’t listen to their community? After an enormous amount of discussion on the forums, Square is taking the server merger back to the drawing board.

We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you for the wealth of feedback you have provided us with following the announcement made on February 9, 2012 (Thursday), regarding the World merge and character transfers. In order to ensure that the most desirable and effective outcome is achieved, we will be reassessing the method of the merger process.

Initially, the server merger was set to take the game’s eighteen servers and merge them down to ten. Square has promised to release more information as the company decides upon what to do next.

(Source: Lodestone)

Sweden’s Aktie Torget Exchange has posted a web hearing with Star Vault CEO Henrik Nystrom, of which you can find the full translated version below. For the sake of brevity, I have compiled some of the more important points.

If you didn’t catch Star Vault’s Q3 2011 finances, the company reported that they had reduced staff without offering an exact figure. In the first question of the hearing, Henrik directly addresses this topic:

5 people are employed by Star Vault, then we have a team that works in the form of project employment/freelance when there is a need for it.

As he has done before, Henrik discusses why the game has faced its population issues, particularly with regard to the experience new players have upon joining, that the existing community must be helpful to new players who seek assistance, otherwise they may not return.

When asked about how long he expects Mortal Online to survive, Henrik likened the game to MMOs that have survived for over a decade. He also notes that Star Vault expects Mortal Online to break even and start profiting in mid 2012. Publishing with LeKool to bring Mortal Online to China should result in some results this summer.

Star Vault’s long term goal is 50,000 subscribers, a goal Henrik sees as reasonable. The average demographic for Mortal Online is the 18-20 male crowd.

(Source: Aktie Torget Exchange)

Thanks to Slapshot1188 for the tip.