You like Age of Empires Online just the way it is, right? Hopefully you do, because Gas Powered Games has announced that future content development has ceased. A small amount of content will be released in the coming weeks, but after that Age of Empires Online will only see a few small changes to fix bugs as they crop up, as well as maintenance to keep the game running. Following this little bit of content, the game will be set as it is forever. Granted, this doesn’t mean that Age of Empires Online is close to shutting down.
Far from it in fact, rather Microsoft Studios notes in the announcement that nothing will change for current gamers:
However, nothing else changes for players, nothing that currently exists will be removed. You can still play everything you own, earn EP, and purchase any content you do not currently own. We will still fully maintain and support the game and its players; no one is losing anything that you have earned or bought. Our Community team will continue to support the game by way of Community Challenges, streams, contests, PvP tournaments and more.
The cause for the sudden cancellation is due to a reported high cost of developing content for the MMO.
Age of Empires Online has had something of an identity crisis. Although enjoyed by plenty of players, the team at Gas Powered Games has been on the receiving end of some harsh criticism that the game isn’t so much “free to play” as it is “free to try.” Premium civilizations aren’t so much an optional add-on as they are a necessity to compete, adding a considerable road block at $10 a piece (they used to be $20).
Starting this summer, players will be able to obtain Empire Points either through buying them or by playing the game. Premium civilizations aren’t going anywhere, but by playing Age of Empires Online a player could accrue sufficient Empire Points to purchase the premium packs without paying a dime. According to GPG developers, a regular player might take two to three weeks of playing daily to obtain a premium civilization.
Age of Empires Online becomes more free to play this summer.
This is what happens when you, like me, stop paying attention to an MMO for a while. I’ll admit, Age of Empires Online has been offline for a while in my watch list, but today’s announcement that Age of Empires Online was merely worth a tweet until I noticed one important factor: When did the civilization packs come down so far in price?
Instead of spending $20 for a civilization pack, you can now pick these up for $10, which are temporarily on sale on Steam for 50% off. Persian, Greek, and Egyptian packs can be bought for $5.
I apologize for this article being about two months late, but in a post on the World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard has announced that in preparation for the launch of Mists of Pandaria later this year, World of Warcraft will no longer be compatible with the Windows 2000 operating system.
In preparation for the upcoming release of Mists of Pandaria, updates to World of Warcraft will no longer support Microsoft Windows 2000. Microsoft ceased support for this version of their operating system in 2010. Players still using Windows 2000 are encouraged to upgrade prior to the release of Mists of Pandaria.
According to a user on the same thread, World of Warcraft is still playable on Windows 2000 by replacing OS .dll files with other versions. As a developer, Blizzard is widely known for ensuring that their games work on as many computers as possible, going as far as including operating systems long after Microsoft had ceased support. Still, all good things must come to an end, and users will have to upgrade if they want to continue playing.
Age of Empires Online has always had one major downside: You had to do some major grinding in order to unlock all of the units in the game’s standard leveling mode. What ever happened to a fun skirmish in Age of Empires with everything available? Well the team over at Gas Powered Games has heard your pleas, and has introduced the Skirmish booster pack, allowing for just what the doctor ordered: Massive battles without the need to grind out your units.
The pack is free, but only for a limited time. You’ll still need to go through the process of buying it from Games for Windows marketplace, however.
Part of my job here at MMO Fallout includes predicting the future, and occasionally I am wrong. This is not one of those times. Now, those of you who follow this website know that I have historically suggested that MMO players who want to play on the console choose the Playstation 3 over the Xbox 360, foremost as there will never be an MMO on the 360 (apart from Final Fantasy XI). Thanks in part to Microsoft’s stringent policies clashing with the inherent requirement that the game be available for regular content and patch fixes, even Square Enix has admitted that the only reason Final Fantasy XI made it onto Xbox Live was due to the system being in its infancy.
So although I offer my congratulations to Nexon for managing to get Dungeon Fighter Online on Xbox Live Arcade, I have to play devil’s advocate and point out one important fact: Dungeon Fighter Online is not an MMO. Structurally, there isn’t much difference between Dungeon Fighter and, say, Castle Crashers. The game is still run via P2P networking.
What this does bode well for is lobby-based, not really true-MMO titles, coming out on the Xbox360, which was never really a problem to begin with. As far as the traditional MMO, well you’re still better off with a Playstation 3, given the system already leads its competitor by multiple MMOs.
Undead Labs is on the MMO Fallout list of “Developers We’d Like To See Succeed,” and not just because they are promising us a zombie MMO, although that reason covers the basic essentials. Thanks to a publishing deal with Microsoft, Undead Labs is taking the Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment route by first creating a zombie game on Xbox Live Arcade, that will set up the story and structure that their zombie MMO will be built around. While Class 3 will start out as an open world third person action title, Undead Labs will be inching the IP closer to MMO territory.
Although Class 3 will be an Xbox Live Arcade exclusive title, I want to make it very plain and clear that Xbox users should not put a lot of faith in Undead Labs’ MMO similarly appearing on the system. Microsoft may be publishing this title, but the company has a long history of snuffing out MMOs from much bigger companies. Age of Conan, Champions Online, Star Trek Online, and Final Fantasy XIV are just a few of the titles that were slated for release on the 360, but pushed back into oblivion or outright canned as a result of Microsoft’s interference.
The issues with an MMO on the 360 are quite simple, once you understand Microsoft’s system for their online games. Releasing regular patches is difficult, as Microsoft has to certify every update. The MMOs take up a lot of bandwidth that would go through Xbox Live’s servers, and most of the companies expect Microsoft to open their MMOs up to silver members, because who wants to pay for internet + Xbox Live + subscription fees just to play an MMO? The Xbox360 version of Final Fantasy XI is playable on a silver account, and even Square has admitted in the past that FFXI only made it onto the console because Live was in its infancy at the time, and that the company does not expect similar results for FFXIV.
So if Undead Labs does get around to making their MMO (rather than finding Live Arcade games a more feasible form of income, which it likely is), expect it to pop up on the PC and possibly the PS3. If their MMO does appear on the 360, it won’t be an MMO in the traditional sense of a persistent world. Microsoft would never allow it, although as publisher they may at least ensure that the title does not release on the PS3.
I stand by what I said last August.
As much as I hate to play the pessimist, those who are waiting out on a 360 version of Final Fantasy XIV might as well wait in line behind those still hoping for a console edition of Champions Online, Age of Conan, and Star Trek Online, who are standing right over there with the folk waiting for Duke Nukem Forever and the rapture.
…Ignore the Duke Nukem tidbit. Good thing I’m such an optimist, right?
If this pre-release hype doesn’t have you foaming at the mouth, you are likely a long-time MMO player and have heard this drivel a thousand times over. I have a theory that the bigger the company’s mouth is prior to release, the more disappointing the game is.
This should be obvious by now, but it’s not just the world that is massive in an MMO, the budget is as well. Virtually every mainstream title (sans Runescape) has sucked up millions of dollars in the process of being developed. Not too long ago, it was revealed that Ensemble Studios was working on Project Titan, the fabled Halo MMO, that was canceled under unspecific circumstances. In a recent comment by ex-Ensemble programmer Dusty Monk, the title was canned because of its enormous budget: 90 million. The publisher (Microsoft) decided to pull the plug on the project due to the long distance the MMO still had to go before it was anywhere near completion, and the already high cost.
One only has to look at EA’s upcoming The Old Republic, as well as Age of Conan and Warhammer Online to see just how big budgets can get. So yes, Microsoft, MMOs are expensive, but did you really think that a Halo MMO would do that badly?
“It has always been, and still remains our intent to release on consoles, and as soon as we’re able to share more information about it, we will.”
-Daeke, Community Manager, Cryptic Studios, on Champions Online on consoles.
One downside to the internet is that anything you say can and will be used against you in the court of “hey, you said this.” I don’t think I need to remind Mythic of Mark Jacob’s now famous quote regarding the health of MMOs being tied to how many servers are opened post-launch, but I digress. Back when Champions Online was still in closed beta, Cryptic still had high hopes to get the title out on the Xbox360, as one of the few console MMOs on the market. I even commented on Champions Online in 2010: A Blue Moon Year.
“Will we ever see a new 360 MMO? Champions Online and Age of Conan are just two titles slated to release on the Xbox360, and we learned earlier this year that it is Microsoft’s doing that is delaying these titles. With the cancellation of the planned BBC streaming, alongside another year of no MMOs on the 360, Microsoft continues to make an ass of itself in regards to its live service.”
Since I’ve already revealed the spoiler in the title, there’s no point delaying this any longer: According to a Cryptic Studios developer, the console version of Champions Online has been canned, with no plans to revive the project. In a post on the official forums, Jackalope had this to say:
“100% of our focus is on making the current PC product the best it can be. There are no current plans for a console version of Champions.”
-Jackalope, Cryptic Studios, on Champions Online on the 360.
I’m sure Microsoft’s well touted ability to turn developers away from putting MMOs on their consoles had something to do with this decision, but the less-than-stellar reception to Champions Online since release may have been the final straw that broke the console’s back, in a manner of speaking. I’m sure the community will find some way to spin this news in a million different directions.
For those of you still waiting for a console MMO that is not Final Fantasy XI, or Massive Action Game, you are still out of luck. Age of Conan is still allegedly making its way to the Xbox360 this year, with The Agency, All Points Bulletin, and Free Realms bounding in next to an unnamed Turbine game, as well as possibly a Blizzard MMO.
MMOs on the consoles have historically had less of a chance of not only surviving to completion on the console platforms, but actually making it out the door to warm welcome. Searching deep enough, you can find a substantial list of MMOs dating back to the Xbox/PS2 console generation of console MMOs that were canned. So far Final Fantasy XI is the only console MMO to gain and keep a large number of subscribers, and even at that Square Enix has announced no plans to place Final Fantasy XIV on the Xbox360, although it will make its way to the Playstation 3.
More on console MMOs, and Champions Online, as it appears.
Delusions of grandeur are funny and all, but they are a sign/warning of deeper issues, especially in a company that looks to do business. For starters, how many self-proclaimed “Wow-killers” have you seen that ended up being disappointments? Aside from virtually all of them. Yes, it seems that by the time a product (WoW, Steam, Ipod, Windows, etc) gets to the point of success where other products use it as a focal point of sales (___-killer), the product has become so successful that it has rooted itself in the number one spot, at least for the time being.
Microsoft’s Games on Demand (Or GOD) was just recently announced, and is essentially a digital download addition to Games for Windows Live. The company aims to take a chip off of Steam’s 70% hold of the digital download market, and I say good luck with that. Good luck in the same manner you tell your friend “good luck” as he dons his helmet, cape (bath towel), and proceeds to jump off the roof of a building to prove he can fly.
MMO Fallout 