For every day that goes by, the odds of successfully importing a free to play MMO from Asia to the west become more difficult. Several years ago, the only competition that a publisher had to contend with consisted of similar titles with an insane amount of grind, poor localization, and an almost nonexistent customer support to match the “pay to win” cash shop. Now that the Western free to play market is no longer a place where subscription games go to die quietly, the market has become ever more saturated with each passing fiscal quarter, and the market has only grown less tolerant of poor imports.
Last December, gPotato shut down Tales Runner. More recently, the publisher announced that on March 27th, two more games will meet the same fate. Luna and Prius Online will both be turned off at the end of March. To compensate players, gPotato is offering compensation packages including cash shop currency reimbursement to use on their other titles.
So far in 2012 we have seen or will see the launch of TERA, The Secret World, Guild Wars 2, Neverwinter, and a whole lot more. and the free to play conversions of Aion, Star Trek Online, and Everquest (to name three), and the deaths of Everquest Online Adventures, Earthrise, and Lego Universe (so far). In an already crowded and competitive market, developers and publishers must become increasingly vicious to keep their games afloat and to not be tossed to the sharks.
MMO Fallout 