Tag: Shut down

RaiderZ Shutting Down In Korea


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It feels like just a month ago that were were discussing RaiderZ shutting down in Europe. Because it was. Just under a month, actually, since Gameforge announced that RaiderZ would be shutting down. Further to the east, Neowiz has announced rather unexpectedly that RaiderZ will also be shutting down its services in Korea. The servers will remain online until September 24th, when they will go offline for the final time. The company has revealed that there will be some form of reimbursement.

As MMO Culture points out, and I said in our review of RaiderZ, the game is something of a poor man’s TERA. With TERA going free to play, the odds are likely that the game just isn’t holding up in the market. The good news is that the game continues to run in North America under Perfect World Entertainment.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Gameforge Shutting Down RaiderZ Europe


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As the MMO market continues its march towards heavy saturation, it is our duty at MMO Fallout to inform you whenever another title sees its services come to an end. Gameforge has announced that they will be shutting down all support for the action MMO RaiderZ in its hosted territories. As Gameforge is merely the European publisher for the MMO, the game will remain operational in North America and South Korea where the game is published by Perfect World Entertainment and Neowiz Games respectively.

The FAQ published by Gameforge notes that RaiderZ did not meet financial expectations:

The success of RaiderZ did not meet our expectations and as we saw no other potential alternatives to the discontinuation of the services, unfortunately we were left with no other alternative than to take this step.

Servers will remain online until August 30th after which players who still want a fix will have to move over to Perfect World or Neowiz.

(Source: Shutdown FAQ)

Kartuga Is Dead: InnoGames Shutting It Down


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In the line of quality, the MMO Kartuga ranks on InnoGame’s list somewhere between “good enough to monetize” but below “good enough to finish development.” Sure, Kartuga was already asking for money, but that doesn’t mean that its publishers have any plans to see it through to completion. You should know this by now, stalwart MMO gamers. Kartuga joins the growing list of MMOs being shut down mid-beta due to a sudden realization that the game isn’t up to par, or due to changes in direction. In this case, InnoGames has decided to focus on cross-platform games and did not consider Kartuga worth the investment to continue developing.

The game offers stunning graphics and intriguing PvP with great potential, but we came to the conclusion that Kartuga does not live up to the high standards of quality we strive for. Moreover, the game does not fit into our strategy of cross-platform games. We believe that the time and work that would be needed in order to improve the game would have delayed our attempts to create truly great cross-platform-games, and whether or not all issues could be fixed in a timely manner is uncertain.

InnoGames will not be offering any form of compensation or refund for players who feel their money may have been wasted on this endeavor, however unspent gems can be exchanged for other InnoGames products until August 14th.

(Source: InnoGames)

Prius Online Is Still Unsuccessful, Shuts Down Again


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One major lesson I try to teach here at MMO Fallout is that all of the rebranding in the world won’t stop a market failure from crashing over and over and over again, no matter how many times you try to change its legal name and put on new eye liner. Such is the case with Prius Online, the latest in a long line of ultra-generic low budget imported MMOs that we see in a consistent state of swapping publishers, shutting down only to reappear a year or two later under a new name and with some new quest dialogue, only to perform as poorly as its previous launch and shut down yet again.

Prius Online was originally launched in 2008, with gPotato bringing it to western shores down the line in 2011. Due to poor reception, the game was shut down in 2012, only to be re-imagined as Arcane Saga and launched by Netmarble in 2013. Arcane Saga launched just one month prior to the announcement that it would be shut down on September 16th. It’s so new, the “(new)” tag is still on the game on Netmarble’s website.

There is a lesson to be learned in here, but I’ll let you figure that out for yourself.

(Source: Netmarble)

Battle For Graxia Is Going To Hurt Petroglyph


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What does free to play, MOBA, MMORTS, and a well known IP have in common? All three fall under what I call the line of presumed success that isn’t so much of a line as it is a painting of a hole in the wall set up by a cunning cartoon coyote to entrap businesses with zero depth perception. Now I could stand here on my podium all day and scream to budding developers about how their market researchers are dead wrong, and that the success of high profile MMOs like League of Legends, DOTA2, and even titles like SMITE will not translate into guaranteed success for them, and may even scoop up enough of the market to ensure that they never see the light of day, but I am never going to convince companies like Mythic Entertainment that the money and staff that could have been spent on Warhammer Online was being wasted on a MOBA that nobody would want to play. Would the CEO of Petroglyph had listened if I had shown up in his bedroom at 3am and, instead of stealing the sample toothpastes from the linen closet, had warned him that Battle for Graxia was a bad idea?

As League of Legends continues to rake in more income than the GDP of some of Earth’s smallest countries, we will continue our frogmarch of MOBA titles trying to piggy back on their success and crashing miserably. Where MOBA games differ from MMOs, and I do know most of you don’t want me talking about the genre, is that unlike MMOs where you can afford to be a “WoW clone” and still have enough room to make the game your own and become successful, the MOBA genre is much harder to break into, since each game is more or less exactly the same. There isn’t a whole lot of wiggle room, and you either get your name out and succeed or flop horribly. Petroglyph tried this with Rise of the Immortals, and it flopped. Then they tried it again with Battle for Graxia, and the game is now shutting down just a month out of launch.

A few players on the Battle for Graxia forums pointed out just a few of Petroglyph’s failings: Not advertising the game, pricing above the competition, poor server infrastructure, and a lack of commitment to their games and players. Battle for Graxia beat All Point Bulletin’s record for how quickly a game could shut down after launch, and this news is going to hurt Petroglyph much deeper than simply the lost potential revenue. Shutting down your game one month after launch, which in turn followed a very long beta period, sets a bad precedent and anyone who reads up about them in the future may not have enough trust to make those crucial beta purchases. And why should they?

Battle for Graxia is shutting down on June 27th, with the cryptic message that Petroglyph reserves the right to bring the game back online at any point in the future, and that they hope to do so. Whether or not the community affords them another chance is an entirely different topic.

Disney Shuts Down LucasArts


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In a truly disappointing move, Disney has confirmed to Game Informer that the game publishing subsidiary LucasArts has been shut down, accompanied by an expected number of layoffs associated with such a change. Instead, LucasArts will move toward licensing rather than developing games based on the Star Wars franchise.

“After evaluating our position in the games market, we’ve decided to shift LucasArts from an internal development to a licensing model, minimizing the company’s risk while achieving a broader portfolio of quality Star Wars games. As a result of this change, we’ve had layoffs across the organization. We are incredibly appreciative and proud of the talented teams who have been developing our new titles.”

Unfortunately this likely means the cancellation of the upcoming, and extremely beautiful looking, Star Wars 1313. As Game Informer points out, the shuttering wasn’t exactly unexpected, with the absence of both the Force Unleashed and Battlefront series, not to mention the total lack of any serious Indiana Jones games in the past few years outside of LEGO Indiana Jones.

MMO Fallout hopes for fast employment by those affected by the layoffs.

Rift Shutting Down In Korea


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Games developed in the west that are then brought over to the east have a tendency to not break into the market enough to sustain profitibility. Rift’s death in Korea has arguably been written on the walls ever since Trion announced that the game would still be operating with a subscription despite the market’s heavy focus on free to play games with cash shops. Even World of Warcraft operates on a pay by the hour model in Asia.

So it comes as not so much of a surprise that Rift didn’t catch on in Korea. MMO Culture is reporting that Rift is being shut down under CJ E&M on April 25th, and players will be refunded for any subscriptions charged past April 17th and that the web shop will be closed March 28th. Rift has just recently gone into open beta in preparation for release in China.

(Source: MMO Culture)

Gamigo Shutting Down Grimlands Development


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Gamigo’s upcoming MMO shooter Grimlands has announced that it is setting development. In a news post on the game’s website today, Gamigo has revealed that Grimlands is the unfortunate victim of a shift in company focus, with less priority placed on high-risk and in-house developed projects, and putting more focus on publishing games. The announcement in its entirety:

The intensified focus on publishing and distribution and reduction of high-risk development projects has been pushed further forward. With this in mind the decision has been made not to proceed with the development of the MMORPG, Grimlands. The game still requires substantial additional funds to be brought to completion. Even other games in the “development pipeline” are to be critically assessed anew according to opportunities and risks.

With luck, Grimlands might be picked up by another developer and brought to completion.

 

Sevencore Shutting Down


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You all remember Sevencore, right? If not, you’ll be saddened to know that gPotato will be shutting down the MMO come April. In a news announcement released today, gPotato explained the shut down as a direct result of the game’s poor performance and developer pulling out.

Today, we regret to inform you that we are shutting down the SEVENCORE service because the developer is no longer able to support the game. SEVENCORE has proved to be less attractive to players than anticipated and thus become unprofitable for the developer to be continued as a game. Without the developer’s support, we see ourselves with no other choice than to close the service, unfortunately.

Players will be relieved to hear that all gPotato Chips spent on the game since the 1st of February will be reimbursed, along with a portion of money spent prior. Along with a few other updates, gPotato is also looking to make the cash shop items free until the game does shut down late April.

  • We are going to reimburse all gPotato spent between the 1st of February and today, and between 30% and 75% for purchases prior to this date.
  • We will close the in-game shop with immediate effect but are looking into an option to make all shop items available for free.
  • The game service won’t be closed until the end of April.
  • During the final period of the game, we will boost EXP gain and run various events to make the final weeks as entertaining as possible.
  • We are currently working on some very interesting offers for all SEVENCORE players if you decide to play one of our many other games. These packages are currently being discussed and finalized  once we have all the details we will update you on this topic.

Unfortunately when the developer kicks the bucket, there isn’t much that the publisher can do about it. Sevencore players can at least look forward to some perks coming their way if they choose to go to one of gPotato’s other titles.

(Source: Sevencore)

WWII Online Removed From MMORPG.com By Cornered Rat Software


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You may not have noticed that World War II Online suddenly went missing from MMORPG.com earlier today. The main game page for WWII Online and the forum directory became inaccessible, although threads were not deleted and can still be reached and posted in with direct links. The removal came with no immediate comment by either MMORPG.com staff or a developer, leading to speculation that the game’s sudden absence was due to anything from a technical glitch to demands by Cornered Rat Software.

Well the latter group is correct. The removal of WWII Online was at the request of Cornered Rat Software, as MMORPG.com administrator Meddle posted, confirming on the forums.

CRS requested that we remove the forums from the site.  Our policy is to also remove the game listing as well in this event.

We’ve discussed here at MMO Fallout before that Cornered Rat Software doesn’t exactly have great track record on dealing with criticism, what with a very heavily moderated forum that is mostly closed off to the public and only accessible to accounts with active subscriptions. Being a third party website, the WWII Online forums at MMORPG have become a platform for current and ex-customers to vent their frustrations with Cornered Rat Software without fear of being banned in retaliation or simply having their threads shut down. As a result of the clash between former and current players, the forum subsection ultimately became a never ending, out of control flame war.

To MMORPG.com’s credit, however, the removal of the game’s forums does come at a high price: The complete removal of WWII Online from the website period. Whether or not CRS sees this as a preferable alternative to what was being posted is up for speculation.