Shut down – Page 12 – MMO Fallout

Battle For Graxia Is Going To Hurt Petroglyph

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

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

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

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

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 1^st 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

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.

RealU Lays Off Most Staff, Gamigo Seeks New Developer

Otherland is an upcoming MMO based on the book series of the same name, written by Tad Williams. The game is being developed by RealU, and published by Gamigo. At least it was, recent rumors that RealU has laid off most of its staff were confirmed by a Community Manager over at the Otherland official forums:

Unfortunately we have to confirm that the rumors are true and RealU, the developer of Otherland, has laid off most of its staff. RealU is a subsidiary of German publisher dtp, which by itself is currently in insolvency, and gamigo had and has very limited influence on this decision. We are disappointed by this development and very sorry for the development team.

As for Otherland itself, Gamigo hasn’t given up the ghost yet.

As for the Otherland game: we are still holding the exclusive publishing rights for Europe and North America and we are currently looking into opportunities to finish the title at another location. Please understand that for legal reasons we are unable to comment further on this matter.

Gamigo will keep us updated if they do manage to find a new location.

(Source: Otherland)

Wrath of Heroes To Shut Down, Mythic Denies Refunds

Eventually someone will realize that despite the success of games like League of Legends, Heroes of Newerth, and Valve’s DOTA 2, the MOBA genre is not the next line of games where companies can put out any product and simply sit back and watch the money print itself. Originally announced in 2011, Wrath of Heroes was supposed to be a slimmed down version of Warhammer Online. All the fun of Warhammer’s scenarios without the countless hours of boring crap that is required by an MMO. Regardless, the game never caught on as well as hoped, and as a result Mythic has announced that the servers will come down on March 29th.

Wrath of Heroes is perhaps another example on why spending money in a game that is still in beta is a bad idea. Wrath of Heroes will shut down having never left beta status, and Mythic has revealed that none of the gem purchases made by players will be refunded. While we have seen other companies perform partial or full refunds when a game is shut down mid-beta, Mythic has decided to not go down that route. Instead, any player who played after January 1st, 2013, or those who have an outstanding balance of gems, will receive one free month of Warhammer Online as well as a treasure chest with items for the MMO.

Undoubtedly this announcement will fuel discussion as to why a game still in beta was required to hit financial goals.

(Source: Wrath of Heroes)

Bullet Run Sunsetting March 8th

Back when I reviewed Bullet Run by Sony Online Entertainment, I noted that while the game was fun, it seriously lacked content. At launch, Bullet Run carried just two game modes (Team deathmatch and Dominion) while at the same time featuring a fully fleshed out cash shop. Bullet Run faced the same problem that many other free to play shooters do: There simply wasn’t enough content. The game itself could be functional and mostly bug free, as well as free itself, but in an era where first person shooters are literally a dime a dozen, and the competing free to play FPS titles have an insane amount of content and have long established their user base, the competition is cut throat.

Whether you put it up to a lack of content, an overbearing cash shop, or some other reason, Bullet Run is coming to an end as of March 8th.

After much review and consideration, Acony Games and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) have mutually made the decision to discontinue development on the free-to-play FPS game, Bullet Run. As a result, SOE and Acony will sunset the game and end all game services for Bullet Run on March 8, 2013. We would like to thank the players for their dedication and support of the game.

As with any other shut down, players will be refunded for any membership extending past February 1st on a prorated level.

(Source: Press Release)

The Current State Of Gods & Heroes

I’m writing this in response to a comment recently left here at MMO Fallout by user Sapphic about the game Gods & Heroes:

Well the servers went down in September and according to the website still haven’t come back up, the forums are still down I can confirm. No reply from trying to contact them, no update or reply to messages posted on their facebook page or twitter. Also their other game in development, Minis with enemies has, even tho it was promised in a video on the front page, not been updated since June 2012. Heatwave have gone totally silent in any form of communications about any of their released or in development products. Though I would reply to this in case anyone found this and thought of putting money down for GnH. As I would recommend not doing until Heatwave at least update in some variety of what is happening.

As many of you likely know, Gods & Heroes doesn’t have developers. It hasn’t since January 2012 when everyone was reassigned to other projects at Heatwave Interactive, none of which have show any activity since around July. So what has happened since then? On September 27th, the Gods & Heroes game servers and website went offline for maintenance with no estimated downtime and with the possibility of extended maintenance. As of December 2nd, the Gods & Heroes Facebook still had players reporting the servers as offline. I did my own investigation and found that the servers, when accessed through the game client, are indeed online. I have no method of pinpointing exactly when they came online, but it appears to be sometime in mid-December. They are still online as of this writing.

Heatwave Interactive has been completely silent since September 2012, as far as I can tell. As of this publishing, the forums are not just offline, the URL forwards to a Verizon “page not found” error. The game’s website is woefully out of date, still listing the game as sold via Steam, Gamestop, and EB Games when it was removed from those stores around a year ago. The download client that the website provides via the account management page is completely broken and will return an “out of date” error and instruct the user to download a newer version from the main website.

If you’re still interested in giving Gods & Heroes a play, it costs a $9.99 one time fee on the Gods & Heroes website and doesn’t have a subscription or cash shop, be aware that the active community is just about nonexistent. There are three servers and they are all pretty quiet. So if you do take Gods & Heroes for a spin, bring a few friends or you’ll be going solo.

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this:

Spread It:

Like this: