Like I previously stated. NetDevil tried to buy the Auto Assault IP back from NCsoft and it was shot down. AA by all accounts was a failed MMO that never achieved the critical mass needed to survive much past it's first year.
By the way, I don't deny that Auto Assault was unprofitable. I think that one of the game's designer's came right out and said it. But one thing that is lost when that tidbit is thrown out is that it was by NCsoft's own doing. Auto Assault was, believe it or not, considered pretty spiffy for its time in that I don't think there had ever been a vehicle-based MMO until then, and it used some interesting technology in realizing it.
The marketing that NCsoft provided for City of Heroes was absolutely lavish compared to what poor Auto Assault got. Do you remember seeing
any ads for Auto Assault? To be honest, if it hadn't been for City of Heroes, I wouldn't have even known that game existed, and that's a shame. Also, if I recall correctly, NCsoft laid off a bunch of the Auto Assault development team beyond normal post-launch scaling down, which some (probably rightly) felt contributed to the game's decline.
If this all sounds hauntingly familiar, it's because it is--City of Heroes had barely any advertising. What publicity it managed to get was generally because of the folks at Paragon Studios and the community, not because of NCsoft. And yeah, City of Heroes at one point had serious layoffs to the point of the development team being ridiculously small--15 people. To be honest, I'm surprised that the game didn't die then. But for the unbelievable efforts of those 15 people, it probably would have.
What's really disturbing to me is that these are problems that publishers are supposed to
help with, not actively cause. I mean, the reason a small- to medium-sized studio goes to a major publisher like this is not to help write the game or have someone dictate what kind of microtransaction model they should use, duh. It's because development studios typically don't have the resources to bring the product to market and sustain it in the first few months after launch. It's the publisher's primary responsibility to provide marketing for the game and ensure that the developers have the resources they need to successfully build and support the product, and in exchange, it gets to profit off the long-term profits that the game brings in.
By this standard, NCsoft is an utter failure as a game publisher. They've had plenty of chances to turn around this image, and they have deliberately chosen not to. I honestly think that the executive management at NCsoft has no clue what a publisher is supposed to do. Instead, NCsoft seems intent on cutting off its long-term profits at the knees to focus on sinking in lots of money on expensive new projects. That business model is simply unsustainable for a game publisher, and I honestly believe that's a big factor in why they're being punished in the stock market right now. Until NCsoft demonstrates that it has the capability to sustain games (and their communities) in the long run, the company will continue to go downhill.
