Defunct – Page 18 – MMO Fallout

[Column] Are Pirates Starting To Admit Defeat?

Video game piracy may be going away, a thought that is sure to terrorize every consumer who feels entitled to a free lunch, but while we’ve been hearing this statement from publishers for years accompanied by their games being cracked and leaked at launch or, in some cases, weeks and months before. We hear it and groan about the prospect of a new piece of half-cocked DRM that doesn’t so much stop piracy as it does harass legitimate buyers and diminish the overall product, but this is the first time we’re hearing about it from the pirates themselves. The message isn’t so much a cry of fear but a sigh of resignation, there’s a sense that publishers are indeed winning this war.

This has been going on for nearly two years now, thanks to a little piece of software called Denuvo Anti-Tamper. While it hasn’t made games completely uncrackable, it has severely lengthened the amount of time and effort required to break the games, in many cases until months after launch when the initial wave of interest is already over. It took a month to crack Dragon Age: Inquisition, six months for Fifa 15, and titles like Just Cause 3 and FIFA 16 still have not been cracked as of mid-January. Chinese group 3DM noted in one of their posts that their cracker nearly called it quits over Just Cause 3’s impenetrability.

According to that same group, piracy may go the way of the dodo within the next two years, at least as far as AAA studios and big releases are concerned. 3DM, meanwhile, has actually pledged to stop cracking single player games for the next year in order to examine how sales are affected by their absence. Whether or not that’s actually their motivation, or if it is a coming sign of defeat, will have to be seen.

And for the record, MMO Fallout does not support piracy of commercial products for any reason. Private servers for abandoned MMOs and abandonware, modifications, and tweaking software to function on your computer are completely different topics.

DUST 514 Will Shut Down In May

CCP Games has announced that their console shooter DUST 514 will be shutting down later this year. Initially launched on the Playstation 3 in 2013, DUST never really caught on with either the Eve Online community or the console community. The idea was pretty unique, players in DUST would form corporations that would fight over territory control on planets in the Eve universe, contracted by players in the MMO. Unfortunately the game failed to catch on with shooter fans, who had numerous other well-established console shooters, and Eve players who heavily criticized the game only being available on consoles.

We are very proud of what we’ve learned and accomplished with DUST 514 on PlayStation 3 over the past three years and it is an honor to be a part of such a dedicated community. We consider DUST 514 one of the best free-to-play offerings on the platform, but the years have caught up with us. It is with a heavy heart that we inform you that DUST 514 will be shutting down on May 30th, 2016.

The forum post announcing the sunsetting also mentions a new PC shooter set in the Eve universe, to be given more detail at Eve Fanfest in April. The most loyal DUST players can expect some sort of recognition when this game comes around.

(Source: DUST 514)

Soldier Front 2: Highly Reviewed, On Steam, Also Defunct

Soldier Front 2 is one of many free to play first person shooters on Steam and, if you’re anything like me, you may have stumbled upon it while browsing your recommended queue during the holiday sale. It may have even caught your eye, being a free to play shooter with a “very positive” community rating, and you may have downloaded it only to find that the game doesn’t launch. Instead, you get an error mentioning issues connecting to the server.

You see, Soldier Front 2 shut down months ago, yet the game is still available to download from Steam. The store page for SF2 no longer lists extra DLC packs, however they are still available for purchase for anyone unlucky enough to stumble upon and ignorant enough to buy without attempting to launch the game first. And should anyone get that far down the rabbit hole, the booster-nature of the DLC packs means that they are all ineligible for a refund.

(Source: Steam)

MMO Fallout Says Goodbye To 2015’s Dearly Departed

2015 is over and that means paying respect to the recently departed, games with no servers and developers without jobs. While the year brought with it plenty of new games, it also marked the end of others and whether or not those games continue to live on through unofficial, community-run private servers is another story.

Let’s reminisce on a few of them.

1. Face of Mankind

Seeing games like Face of Mankind never become truly popular and then die out due to the venom of its own design is disappointing, but alas 2015 was the year that the crowd funded reboot to the sandbox title was finally put to rest and given its proper burial: Six feet under. In theory, it was a great idea: Factions made up entirely of players that would function as a working society with police, miners, terrorists, etc. In practice, however, the game quickly devolved into a free for all deathmatch with no limit to the drama of “you broke the ceasefire,” “no you broke it first” on the forums.

Games like this tend to work, in theory, until you enter the troll factor and compensate for the idea that player vs player deathmatch is the easiest form of emergent gameplay in a sandbox environment. Combine it with a system that both allows players to endlessly respawn and try to take out as many people as they can before they are killed, and the inability of players tasked with enforcing the peace to have any real stopping power, and you have a title that new players could log into, find little more than random grenade spam, and subsequently log out and uninstall.

Ultimately, Face of Mankind was an old game with a niche audience. Not even Steam could change that.

2. Dragon’s Prophet (North America)

This is one of a few on our list this year that shut down not due to the game itself but because of the publisher. Dragon’s Prophet is still alive and not-exactly kicking in Europe and Asia, however when Sony Online Entertainment transitioned into Daybreak Game Company and refused to place Dragon’s Prophet on the All Access list, it was pretty obvious that the publisher was looking to cut ties. As part of its cost cutting measures, Daybreak brought everything in house, laid off a bunch of employees, and fired Storybricks. Later on we learned that the two companies would be cutting ties and that Dragon’s Prophet would be shutting down in North America.

So by that measure, Dragon’s Prophet is the only one of this list that can still be played in an official capacity. Creating an account and playing on the European servers is feasible and, in my experience, doesn’t come with any lag.

3. RaiderZ

Again, a victim of corporate play. In this case, Perfect World Entertainment was unable to do anything with the game due to the closure of the game’s developer MAIET. Rather than go through the process of hiring another studio or bringing some people on board to continue development, costs that would have likely outweighed any potential income that the game might receive due to the extra attention, Perfect World decided to call it a day and shut the game down.

As far its library was concerned, Perfect World had a lot higher quality games to invest its money into rather than pouring it into what was an enjoyable but otherwise generic Korean import with a lot of grind and not a big audience. At least they had the decency to reimburse players who’d spent money on it.

4. Archlord 2

If you haven’t noticed, this list every year has a majority stake of Korean imports, and is also severely incomplete. If I took the time to track down every MMO imported from China or Korea that shut down months after launch, I’d have to start this list in January and there would probably be closer to 100 titles. If I included every MMO in China and Korea that shut down this year, it’d probably be closer to a thousand. So instead, I keep the list confined to the games that were released westward, noteworthy enough to be covered here and on other major western gaming websites, meaning you won’t see any one of the numerous titles that R2 Games or Steparu quietly launched and just as quietly shut down.

So while Dragon’s Prophet is the result of publisher bailout and RaiderZ is the victim of developer absence, Archlord 2 went down due to the simple lack of community interest. We knew this was going to be an issue back when the game was still bound to Korea and was already merging servers during beta with players still having trouble forming public groups. The game wasn’t well received in Korea and it wasn’t well received here. Before they had the chance to bury Archlord, its successor was already on its death bed.

5. Transformers Universe

Not an MMO, but worthy of mention because it is Jagex and this is a game that I had marginally more optimism for than their usual new game announcements. The idea of Jagex working on a game based on a third party IP, ideally, meant that there would be an outside force pushing and prodding and ensuring that the game was being developed efficiently and without the waffling that usually ends up delaying and tanking Jagex’s other projects. Ultimately, however, it seems that the addition of a second player just meant one more hand to pull the plug.

But Transformers Universe is a perfect example of a popular game killer, when a title sees a dramatic turn in development focus and jumps genres halfway through development (or in this case less than a year before it was initially supposed to launch), forcing the team to scramble to effectively start over while still driving toward that initial launch date. It’s like being assigned to cook a lasagna with the expectation that it will be done before noon, only to be told at 11:30 when it’s already in the oven that instead the task is to make bolognese. You’ll get it done, late, and it won’t be as good as making it from scratch because all you have is the ingredients for lasagna, plus some half cooked lasagna, and some stuff left over in the cabinet.

6. Infinite Crisis

Again, not an MMO, but noteworthy regardless. Similar to Transformers Universe, the demise of Infinite Crisis is an important reminder on two fronts: First, that the MOBA market is saturated to the point where your game has to be something special or noteworthy on a design or monetary level in order to maintain the healthy userbase required to keep it going. Second, that big IPs mean absolutely nothing in the ‘games as a service’ genres of MOBA and MMO where you rely on long term revenue rather than the first month.

I wrote an editorial at the time of Infinite Crisis shutting down and its bullet points are still applicable today, probably even more so.

Dragon’s Prophet Shutting Down In November

North American players will no longer have access to Dragon’s Prophet after November 16th, as Daybreak has announced that the service will be coming to an end. While the game will still be available in Europe and Asia, there are no plans to allow players to transfer their characters over to these other publishers. In the announcement, Daybreak thanked the community for their support.

We are extremely grateful to all the Dragon’s Prophet community members and appreciate the support we’ve received from each and every one of you. We plan to make additional seasonal content and items available during the final weeks of the game and hope you enjoy them.

If you look back at the past year or so, the signs of the demise of Dragon’s Prophet are likely written on the walls. Dragon’s Prophet was suspiciously left out of the Daybreak All Access pass, leading many to speculate that Daybreak would ultimately be parting ways with Runewaker.

(Source: Dragon’s Prophet)

Archlord 2 Shutting Down

Webzen has announced the impending sunsetting of Archlord 2. The servers for the PVP-centric MMO will shut down in approximately two months, on November 24th. Archlord 2 initially launched in 2014, giving it a much shorter run than its predecessor which ran from 2005 until 2014. The sequel was heavily criticized during beta for poor server performance, bugs, and a heavy emphasis on pay to win cash shop mechanics.

Players are not fully without recourse, however, as plans to reimburse Wcoin spent since April are under way.

Depending on the amount of Wcoin spent, players will be reimbursed up to 100% of the Wcoin they spent during the last 6 months of Archlord 2, going back to April 1st 2015. The Wcoin reimbursement is currently scheduled to be completed by October 7th 2015.

To send players off in style, Webzen will be running game-wide buffs as well as reducing the cost of the cash shop goods to 0. These changes take place after Tuesday’s maintenance.

(Source: Webzen)

Because We Missed It: FEAR Online Is Already Dead

F.E.A.R Online is a free to play game set in the world of First Encounter Assault Recon, a horror franchise best known for introducing the world to Alma, a scary demon girl who comes back from the dead to seek revenge on those who caused harm to her. If you haven’t heard of the free to play game, it’s probably because Aeria Games didn’t do much in the form of publicizing its release. So little, in fact, that nobody took much notice to the fact that the game’s been down for a few months now.

Yep, FEAR Online shut down on May 13th, giving the game a life span of about seven months, having launched in October the previous year. I gave the game a look and found it to be a decent online shooter with dated graphics, based on a dated engine, with expensive cash shop items.

(Source: Steam)

Top 5: Lessons We Should Learn From Infinite Crisis

This week Turbine Entertainment announced that Infinite Crisis is shutting down, news that shouldn’t have really been a big surprise given the game’s extended development period, stretched out beta, lack of promotion, and how Turbine was throwing $50 cash packs in with Nvidia graphics cards.

Infinite Crisis isn’t the only game I’m going to talk about here, so just imagine the title was “Lessons We Should Learn From The MOBA Industry”

1. Developers Face A Steep Uphill Climb

If earning a seat at the MMO table is about as hard as getting a reservation at Rao’s in New York City, then the MOBA industry is right up there with a gig at Carnegie Hall. There are a few dozen MOBAs on the market right now, only a small handful of which will dominate the rest while the industry graveyard continues to branch out and buy up more land for the recently deceased. We talk a lot here about how World of Warcraft clones fail because, for the most part, players aren’t willing to forego the time and money spent leveling their characters to go do the same thing over again.

The MOBA genre, with its hyper-competitive nature, has a lot of shortcomings that can kill it early. You’re going up against companies with established communities, years of work balancing each individual hero, and thriving eSports scene. In order to break into the industry, it seems that companies either need to bring something different to the table (ala Smite), be backed by a company with a massive community (ala Dota 2) or to have gotten into the industry at an early age (League of Legends/Heroes of Newerth).

2. Big IPs Still Mean Squat In Gaming

Isn’t it fitting that, out of all of the MOBAs, the ones that crashed and shut down happen to be based on very popular properties? Warhammer is a franchise that spans tabletop games, pen and paper role playing, video games, novels, and more, and yet none of that mattered when the MMO toppled and the MOBA couldn’t sustain itself through beta. The same goes for Transformers Universe, a popular IP with the backing of an established developer with a massive customer base.

Even Guardians of Middle Earth, with all the power of the Lord of the Rings, couldn’t avoid being critically panned (22% approval on Steam) with presently deserted servers on PC. The game came and went on PS3 so quietly that even Warner Bros. didn’t notice to update its website to stop directing people to buy the PS3 version on Amazon, or even acknowledge the game’s existence on PC. According to Steam Charts, Guardians of Middle Earth has a 30 day peak of 19 players on Steam.

3. The Perpetual Beta Is Tired And Pointless

The idea that a game should receive more lenient coverage when in beta became a thing of the past when developers started fully charging for products that were still in beta, and it would be irresponsible to not acknowledge this when MMOs/MOBAs are shutting down without ever launching, and many don’t even offer some form of refund to the customers that went out on a limb and spent their hard earned money to fund an unfinished project.

And while the unfinished state of the game is a great excuse to deflect criticism when reviewers tell you not to spend money, Turbine apparently has no problem using beta time played to justify denying a refund to their founders, which is the exact sentiment given by Turbine’s Community Manager.

That’s mostly it. Because Founders got to play for 2+ years, you guys were well outside our refund window. We really do thank you for supporting the game, as it was your support that kept us going. Make no mistake about that. But, they guys who just bought their elite pack or starter pack from Steam, they didn’t get to play for as long as you guys.

4. The MOBA Genre Is In The Middle Of A Soft Crash

Right now the genre is in a position where developers are looking at the success of the likes of League and Dota and saying to themselves “I can do that too.” What we’ve wound up with is three major players (League, Dota, and SMITE in that order) and a whole lot of stragglers. This isn’t the case of the MMO industry where we have one game to rule them all and a ton of other companies making much smaller, but still livable incomes. The MOBAs that are down on the bottom of the list are struggling to remain relevant, in a genre that is heavily favoring those few at the top.

Compare the 30 day peak of Infinite Crisis to Dota2 on Steam: 1,557 to 967,674. Or Super Monday Night Combat (152), or Demigod (27), or Guardians of Middle Earth (13).

5. Fully Funded Betas Are Still A Bad Place For Your Money

Paid betas have taken on one of the worst attitudes and practices by developers, as repeated by Turbine’s community manager. Developers like Turbine have no problem selling a beta as though it is a finished product, ending character wipes, opening up a fully functional cash shop, and pulling hundreds of dollars out of players, yet when push comes to shove and people start giving the game negative reviews because of bugs or unfinished features, they turn around and claim that it’s unfair because the game is not released and not a finished product.

And when games like Infinite Crisis shut down after a prolonged beta and short launch? Well then it’s considered a full experience, and when pushed on a refund? Deny the entire concept of a finished game.

I know some of you feel as though you only had a small amount of time to play a “finished” game, but Infinite Crisis is a game that was built to consistently change. Even after launch we were still going to produce new champions, add new features, and continue iterating the game as we went forward. As we posted during our launch announcement, launch was never going to be a stopping point in the eyes of our development cycle. We’re an online game, and we’ve changed a lot (and changed for the better) over the last two years.

Turbine’s CM knows as well as you or I do what the players mean by “finished,” that being when the game sheds its beta tags, but you have to hand it to Turbine. Infinite Crisis was finished enough to open up the cash shop, not finished enough to review as a final product, and when it shut down right after launch? Well what exactly does “finished” mean, really? Hold two sides of the same coin, and then deny that the coin exists.

We understand when indie developers can’t finish a game because it’s a couple of guys working out of a motel/office funding the game partially out of pocket and partially through donations/pledges. A company like Turbine, on the IP of DC Comics and the backing of a corporate hulk like Warner Bros. shouldn’t be dropping development of a game because it wasn’t making enough money during beta.

It’s PR spin, and people aren’t going to fall for it. Infinite Crisis shutting down right after launch is bad enough as it is, bridges will be burned and customers will be lost, it’s an unfortunate part of business. But burning founders can damage a brand, in the case Turbine’s future ability to put a game out in beta and ask people to join in early to fund you, as people will look back to when Infinite Crisis shut down and see that while those who jumped in late were refunded, the people who were there from the beginning were told “oh well, too bad.”

I feel that this is a bad sign for Turbine overall.

NCSoft Shuts Down Project HON

NCSoft Korea has shut down development of Project HON, allegedly due to a perceived lack of interest in giant mech games in the local market. Project HON is being shelved to allow NCSoft to focus on its other titles, including the upcoming launch of Lineage Eternal and further growth of Blade & Soul in foreign markets.

Project HON came up earlier this year when three employees were fired for embezzling funds.

(Source: Steparu)

Lord of the Rings Online Says Dasvidaniya To Russia

Russian gamers will be sad to learn that the local Lord of the Rings Online servers will be shutting down on June 1st. Mail.ru, the publisher of Lord of the Rings in Russia, was either unable or unwilling to renew their license with Warner Bros. and as a result the service is coming to an end. To end the game on a high note, players will be able to visit a tavern where they can level up and obtain equipment, talents, and more.

In addition, everything in the cash shop has had its price reduced to one mark, although new player registration and adding money to accounts has already been disabled. Mail.ru is planning on offering bonuses for several of their other games: Allods Online, Perfect World, and Dragon Nest.

(Source: www.lotro-russia.com)

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