Tag: Shut down

Stargate Worlds Unofficially Officially Defunct


Just like Yoko and the Beatles

If MMO Fallout was alive back in 2008, I would likely reference back to an article detailing the death of Star Trek Online in the hands of Perpetual Entertainment, and what ultimately lead to the falling out of the title, into the hands of Cryptic Entertainment. The most important part of this story is to note that both of Perpetual Entertainment’s titles are in the hands of completely different entities, with Star Trek Online being released this past February by Cryptic Studios and Gods and Heroes to be released by Heatwave Interactive at some unknown point. The point being is that, despite the company going under, there is still the possibility of the game being picked up and released.

I say “unofficially officially” because, if Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment had an employee left, and you were to ask him if Stargate Worlds is canceled, he would probably say no. There’s no one working on it, no funds to work on it, and the company sold off its assets, but we don’t want to paint a dismal look at the future. Will the game be coming out this year? No. Will CME be developing it? No. Is there any hope? Well, you could look at Star Trek Online’s over-hundred-thousand subscribers and make up your own mind.

At this juncture, Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment is selling off all of their assets, which will include their license to Stargate Worlds, assuming this sale hasn’t already taken place. As was the case with Perpetual Entertainment, Cheyenne will likely last until the duration of the Chapter 11 bankruptcy is finished, and then dissolve into the abyss of nonfunctional developers. Since Cheyenne has already fulfilled my first set of engagements for Stargate Worlds, I have a new set of possibilities:

  1. Stargate Worlds goes the way of Star Trek Online and Gods & Heroes and is picked up by another studio (Cryptic Studios?), who either collect what Cheyenne had or start anew. It is likely that this studio will be Fresh Start Studios, which is a new developer made up of ex-Cheyenne employees. How well the game does is irrelevant at this point, as we are simply dealing with post-closure events.
  2. The title is not picked up by anyone, and sits in limbo forever.

If the part about Fresh Start Studios picking up Stargate Worlds doesn’t happen, expect option #2. At this juncture, I find it difficult to believe that many studios would pick up the Stargate IP for an MMO.

More on Stargate Worlds if it ever appears, but it seems as if this saga is finally coming to an end.

Final Fantasy XI: Going Nowhere, In A Good Way


Because dumb employees can be managed...

Last month I wrote about how someone at Square Enix is sooo fired, when a high level Human Resources employee blabbed the following:

“I think some amongst you will know, but FF11 started in 2002 … Well, this year it’ll end and the stage will shift to FF14.”
-Square Enix Employee

Of course, with the nature of the internet, fans went wild. Is this an indication that Final Fantasy XI is going to be shut down when XIV comes out? Is this confirmation? Who knows? Square Enix knows, but unless that answer is anything other than “yes, we are shutting down,” anything they say is likely to be ignored by the group of players who are now convinced that the title is indeed set to be canned later this year.

But Square Enix has turned around and confirmed that no, not only is Final Fantasy XI not getting the boot this year, it is receiving even more updates! Square has announced three new scenarios for the not-so-Final Fantasy MMO, as well as an increase in the level cap to 99 (because all good updates have increased level caps). In addition, players will also see the gift of two new summons for use in battle.

So there you go, Final Fantasy XI..ers. If the announcement of new updates isn’t enough to convince you that the title isn’t going anywhere (at least for now), at least you’ll be occupied for the long grind to 99, long enough to forget about your woes.

Back To The Drawing Board: See You Later This Year


Kung Foo!

Perfect World Entertainment isn’t happy with the current state of Kung Foo! their upcoming MMO that yours truly had the pleasure of closed beta testing. In fact, now that the testing is coming to a close in just a few days, they have an announcement to make: Rather than moving the game into open beta, Perfect World Entertainment will be shutting down Kung Foo! in order to optimize it with more content and improved localization for a relaunch of the closed beta later this year. The closed beta test was quite successful, and the company hopes to use this time to add in new features based off of player feedback.

I often berate Eastern MMOs for being shallow titles, but one thing that remains awfully consistent is the attitude of the developers. For companies like Perfect World Entertainment and Gpotato, they have a vested interest in keeping their customers happy, even if that means delaying their title by months at a time in order to avoid launching before it is ready.

More on Kung Foo! as it appears.

Cities XL To Shut Down This March


Historical inaccuracies aside.

With all the commotion(?) over Phantasy Star Universe biting the dust this March, one might think three MMOs shutting down would be enough for the first half of 2010. Odds are none of those people play Cities XL. In an open letter to the community,  Monte Crisco emailed all current subscribers to let them know that Cities’ MMO part, “Planet Offer,” will be shutting down early this year. March, more precisely the 8th.

As for why, well allow me to sum it up in just a few words:

“Not enough players decided to subscribe.”
Monte Crisco

Low subscriber numbers is generally the deciding factor in shutting down an MMO, when the game no longer becomes profitable. Luckily, players will have full access to the single player game even after the online part shuts down.

Monte Crisco’s letter to the community after the break.

Continue reading “Cities XL To Shut Down This March”

Shadowbane: What Happened


Out of all the titles that appear on What Happened, Shadowbane is the longest running. At six years, I would agree that although the game shut down, it was definitely a success in all manner of speaking. One of the top selling PC games at launch back in 2003, Shadowbane is still considered one of the best open pvp MMOs on the market. Offering fully open player vs player combat in a dynamic world where players can morph terrain, hire AI guards and have them patrol, as well as building and destroying buildings.

Shadowbane was not without bad times, however, and unfortunately when the bad times hit, they were very bad. The game transitioned to a free to play in 2006, where ads would be shown at different points in the game (open, close, and upon death). The game still suffered from a number of bugs and glitches, and in 2008 would be completely rebooted.

In 2008, Shadowbane went offline to perform a complete reboot in order to stabilize the servers and increase performance. As a result, all characters were deleted and all houses were destroyed. Only three of the five servers were brought back online.

Shadowbane was, from the start, a cult hit that never truly got off the ground, despite the rabid following of its fans. On one side, Shadowbane may be the only example of an internet petition actually accomplishing something. The original shut down date of May 2009 was extended to July due to player feedback.

Overall, Shadowbane was an interesting period in several ways: For instance, it showed how successful a game with Ultima Online’s mechanics can be, one that is parroted by Darkfall and Mortal Online. It gave ultimate freedom to the players, and did away with instancing, pre-set plots for housing, and other standards of MMOs.

There is the possibility that Shadowbane will be making a comeback, in the form of a non-MMO title. Ubisoft has recently trademarked the title for non-MMO purposes.

The Matrix Online: What Happened


I’ve been sitting on the “What Happened” articles for Shadowbane and The Matrix Online for some time now, although I can’t explain why I’ve been waiting to put them out. With the upcoming shutdown of Dungeon Runners and Metaplace, I might as well get caught up on my shutdowns.

The Matrix Online launched back in March 2005, and truly had a lot going for it. An ever changing world, MxO had one of the best story systems in the MMO industry: One that changed by the week. Story progression took the part of new missions every few weeks, while live events were the main staple of immersion; with developers taking the part of the game’s NPCs and acting out live events, including the assassination of Morpheus. Players were brought into the storyline through hints of the following events that would appear over the city, such as certain billboards, or suspicious agents appearing.

Continue reading “The Matrix Online: What Happened”