Tag: Gods & Heroes

Gods & Heroes: Heatwave Fully Committed


Gods & Heroes is one of those MMOs that’ll make you snap your fingers, point at the monitor, and say “I think I remember that game. It launched, right? It was developed by Blizzard or something.” At least that’s what my editor in chief said when I pitched this article. Gods & Heroes, the oft-not-mentioned Rome MMO, has players collecting minions to battle creatures and lay waste to ancient Rome. The game launched at the end of last month, you can find its launch on the MMO Fallout calendar.

Moving on, if my snide remarks about the game’s reception haven’t clued you in, I will allow Heatwave’s CEO explain the game’s predicament:

As I have noted from way back in closed Beta, the economics of our game are different than those of most MMOs. We don’t need 500k users to be successful. However, our current growth rate isn’t good enough. The game deserves more people enjoying it and the three servers we have online aren’t even sweating. I’m sure some of you are concerned about what that means for the future of the game, and so I’d like to assuage your concern. Heatwave and team are 100% committed to G&H. We believe in it and as you’ll see in the list below, we are investing heavily in it and we will continue to do so.

Gods & Heroes currently costs $40, plus a subscription (or a $200 lifetime membership). According to the review on Ten Ton Hammer, the game was barren after two weeks (three servers), concluding:

It’s not that this is a bad game, it’s just far too little/late for this point in the market. The setting is wonderful, and there are some cool systems in play here…. it’s just marred by yesterday’s graphics, too little polish, and some weird design decisions. Wait until it goes on sale before you drop the money on it.

But fret not, as Heatwave has plans!

That said, in the coming weeks, we are going to begin a promotion that will drive thousands more players to the game and turn Baccus, Mars and Jupiter into communities bursting at the seams. Whatever we do, we will make sure that we first take care of you, our active players. You are the early adopters. The founders of Rome. Our “angel” investors even.

Gods & Heroes having issues is hardly surprising, given the tendency of MMOs with bad development cycles to suffer bad launches, even in the hands of another company. Gods & Heroes was one of the two games to be initially dropped when Perpetual Entertainment kicked the bucket years back.

My money banks on some sort of free trial.

Gods & Heroes: Class, Say Thank You to Heatwave Interactive


Now whether it looks like this...

Back when Cryptic Studios was more like “Cryptic plans for a company,” Perpetual Entertainment was taking care of Star Trek Online and another title, Gods & Heroes, an Ancient Rome MMO set in a realm of Cyclops, Gladiators, and more. Thanks to several rounds of layoffs by Perpetual Entertainment in 2007, Gods & Heroes was put on indefinite hold until 2008, when the company went belly up and had its carcass picked at by various developers. Perpetual was sued by their PR firm for holding back money as an incentive to get more buzz about the title, as well as bribing reviewers for good scores.

Much like how Cryptic picked off Star Trek Online, it is only natural that someone would pick up Gods & Heroes. Heatwave Interactive just so happens to be that vulture, and is happy to take the assets and move the game forward to release status. Heatwave is looking to gather an elite group of past G&H beta testers to give them information on where to go with the latest incarnation. They want to stay true to the title, and Perpetual’s vision for it.

Gods And Heroes is on board for a release date not yet set in stone, but Heatwave says they don’t want to take “another three or four years,” so I would bet my money on late 2010 at the earliest, with 2011 a more likely candidate. With the number of games shutting down in 2010, it’s always good to see a previously doomed title being revived.

More on Gods, and their heroes, as it appears.