My favorite questions are those that answer themselves. For instance, when the entire Faxion Online team was laid off, the question turned to how long the servers would remain standing before UTV finally announced the shut down. The answer: Today. Faxion Online players were greeted today with a somber note:
It’s with an extremely heavy heart that I write to inform you of the upcoming discontinuation of Faxion live services. This week, we will begin the process of ending live service, starting with the immediate discontinuation of store purchases, online registration, and client downloads, with final server closure scheduled to commence within the next 30 days.
Faxion is the heaven vs hell MMO that launched earlier this year in May, to a substantially low reception. Although the game was praised for its concept, it was widely panned as being unfinished and buggy. The game was described as essentially launching in a beta state, with the beta phase being an alpha. Unlike a few other MMOs that managed to launch in the beta stage and still move on to survive a few years out, Faxion didn’t gain the trust of its financier, UTV, laid off everyone at the company.
If Faxion is a lesson to MMO companies, that lesson is about launching an unfinished product in a market saturated with competition. The era where an indie developer can thrive because the game is free to play is over, with Lord of the Rings Online, Everquest II, and a growing list offering AAA experiences for next to nothing.
Who knows, perhaps K2 Networks will buy Faxion and relaunch it.
MMO Fallout 