Author Topic: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.  (Read 9700 times)

Kaos Arcanna

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,067
SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« on: January 25, 2014, 12:42:03 AM »
http://www.mmogames.com/gamenews/24546/soe-shutting-5-mmos-summer/?ref=maressa


Wizardry 101 from what I can tell from the ads was a kid's game. They're going to take it hard. 8-(

Night-Hawk07

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 317
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2014, 01:46:37 AM »
So was the Clone Wars game, and of course Free Realms was all ages I believe.

On another note:

Quote
SWG. I would do everything differently.
SWG PLAYERS - OUR NEXT GAME (not announced yet) IS DEDICATED TO YOU. Once we launch it... you can come home now.

 :o  I wonder what that means....

JWBullfrog

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 605
  • I didn't leave Paragon City. They threw me out!
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2014, 03:26:15 AM »
I know it's a bad habit to apply one's own situation to otherwise unrelated events but it feels like we were the snowball that started the avalanche.

Since our own was shut down it's been, what, about ten other games (including these) that have followed?

Come on MWM, all of these players need a good home.
As long as somebody keeps making up stories for it, the City isn't gone.

Eoraptor

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 614
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2014, 05:50:06 AM »
I know it's a bad habit to apply one's own situation to otherwise unrelated events but it feels like we were the snowball that started the avalanche.

Since our own was shut down it's been, what, about ten other games (including these) that have followed?

Come on MWM, all of these players need a good home.
Pretty much. NCSoft showed the entire industry that it was perfectly alright to shut down an active game and not suffer any real bottom-line consequences from it. Before that, many games were alowed to limp along for years until there was pretty much no one left to keep the lights on for out of fear of consumer backlash.

Now the major game publishers have seen that the game customers will wail and gnash their teeth, but still keep pumping in money for the next big thing (looking at you wildstar).

NCSoft, the gift that keeps on giving.
"Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story, while others can read the back of a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe!"
-Lex Luthor

Aggelakis

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 3,001
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2014, 05:51:38 AM »
SWG gets that honor, I think. They weren't even shut down because of doing bad, they were shut down so SWTOR could come out. A game that feels so completely different I don't understand why they couldn't exist side-by-side.
Bob Dole!! Bob Dole. Bob Dole! Bob Dole. Bob Dole. Bob Dole... Bob Dole... Bob... Dole...... Bob...


ParagonWiki
OuroPortal

Golden Girl

  • One Liners and Winky Faces
  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 2,242
    • Heroes and Villains
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #5 on: January 25, 2014, 06:55:51 AM »
Which is better - NCsoft's "realignment of company focus" line, or SOE openly saying that they're canning Free Realms because they want to use the resources elsewhere?
"Heroes and Villains" website - http://www.heroes-and-villains.com
"Heroes and Villains" on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/HeroesAndVillainsMMORPG
"Heroes and Villains" on Twitter - https://twitter.com/Plan_Z_Studios
"Heroes and Villains" teaser trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnjKqNPfFv8
Artwork - http://goldengirlcoh.deviantart.com

Epelesker

  • Boss
  • ****
  • Posts: 128
  • One fix at a time!
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #6 on: January 25, 2014, 09:20:32 AM »
Tidbits from the AMA.

Quote
Are you planning on adding more family-friendly options? First there was Toontown Online, then there was Free Realms, and CWA. Is there another youth-oriented game planned?
No. No more kids games. Kids don't spend well and it's very difficult to run a kids game. Turns out Kids do mean stuff to each other a lot.

Two questions from my 9yo daughter about Free Realms closing down: "Do you think if we played Free Realms more they won't shut it down?" and "Why?"
First off - I have to go home after this and tell my 12 year old daughter Rose that her favorite game is going away. I assure everyone out there that I will catch more grief from her than anyone else. She easily plays the game 20 hours a week (ok stop judging me other gaming parents.. it's a friendly game for kids). It makes me really sad to shut down FR, but the truth is we need our resources elsewhere right now.

Also, Wizardry Online is different from Wizard101, isn't it?

Drauger9

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 344
    • My gaming blog
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #7 on: January 25, 2014, 09:40:18 AM »

Exxar

  • Lieutenant
  • ***
  • Posts: 90
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #8 on: January 25, 2014, 09:58:45 AM »
Which is better - NCsoft's "realignment of company focus" line, or SOE openly saying that they're canning Free Realms because they want to use the resources elsewhere?
The latter. At least they're being honest.

The Fifth Horseman

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 961
  • Outside known realities.
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #9 on: January 25, 2014, 02:23:37 PM »
Ditto. It's not nice, but they're giving a straight and honest answer - which takes some guts - instead of a load of high-sounding bullcrap that in the end actually means nothing at all - which would be nothing but an insult to their customers.
We were heroes. We were villains. At the end of the world we all fought as one. It's what we did that defines us.
The end occurred pretty much as we predicted: all servers redlining until midnight... and then no servers to go around.

Somewhere beyond time and space, if you look hard you might find a flash of silver trailing crimson: a lone lost Spartan on his way home.

Shenku

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 388
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #10 on: January 25, 2014, 06:32:22 PM »
Agreed, it's always better to get an honest answer as opposed to a non-answer.

JWBullfrog

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 605
  • I didn't leave Paragon City. They threw me out!
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #11 on: January 25, 2014, 06:37:56 PM »
And a straight and honest answer was better then we got.

Honestly, I can accept that an entertainment company (which all video game companies are) is going to close down some products to devote the resources to something new. That has been happening since the beginning of visual media. Does that make it any better for the people who enjoy those products? No. But at least you can always believe in the 'from the company that brought you...' philosophy.

We have to remember that nobody ever promised that their games would last forever. No movie, TV, novel or any other series ever does (even if we would like it to.) We just feel more comfortable believing that that particular product had run it's course, it's story has been told, and that it was time for something new.

In our case, we've never had that feeling. And that is still our biggest source of anger today.

I'm actually kind of interested in what SOE has coming up that will give SWG players a home to come back to. It might just be adspeak, but that phrasing has me curious.
As long as somebody keeps making up stories for it, the City isn't gone.

Peregrine Falcon

  • Lieutenant
  • ***
  • Posts: 96
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #12 on: January 25, 2014, 08:31:42 PM »
Yeah, I heard about this just last night (my time). SOE has now taken the title of "Most MMO's Killed" away from NCSoft.

Free Realms
Matrix Online
Star Wars: Clone Adventures
Star Wars Galaxies
Vanguard
Wizardry Online
Paragon City refugee - "We're heroes, it's what we do."

Drauger9

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 344
    • My gaming blog
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #13 on: January 25, 2014, 09:26:28 PM »
Quote
I'm actually kind of interested in what SOE has coming up that will give SWG players a home to come back to. It might just be adspeak, but that phrasing has me curious.

Agreed, I never played SWG but I'm interested to see if they make good on their promise to those players. Being able to make a new home for those players that's hopefully better than the one they had before. Would be alittle heart warming for me, it'd give me a sense that they actually cared and felt somewhat bad about shutting the game down.

Which is something I'm going to watch cause I want to play Everquest Next so bad but don't want another COH type thing happening if I get into that game as deeply.

Eoraptor

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 614
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #14 on: January 25, 2014, 11:51:41 PM »
Regarding their blurb about SWG... the way it was written, and the way the coverag has flown, I think it is probably a new property which is using the same open-plan story telling that SWG used.

What that property is remains to be seen. Obviously it's not going to BE Star Wars since House of Mouse now owns that and made a big point of killing off Lucas Arts right after acquisition, apparently having little interest at the moment of making videogames around its new franchise holdings. (which if you ask me is a pancake move considering what they could have done between the marvel licenses and the lucas talent)

Still, much like CoH, SWG had a very open and free-play feel to it, which is why, like our City, so many people lament its large scale loss. So any new game that can recapture the same sort of open form play style is sure to please a large and underserved segment of the gaming audience.
"Some people can read War and Peace and come away thinking it's a simple adventure story, while others can read the back of a chewing gum wrapper and unlock the secrets of the universe!"
-Lex Luthor

Kaos Arcanna

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,067
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #15 on: January 26, 2014, 12:51:11 AM »
It would be ironic if it proved to be another Super Hero game. :D

Angel Phoenix77

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,136
  • I am Phoenix !!
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #16 on: January 26, 2014, 01:03:15 AM »
From the first article posted:

Atleast it seems their going to try not to leave their players out in the cold for too long and atleast their honest about the reasons (even if brutally honest).

I feel bad for all the players of those games. I hope that they can find a new virtual home that's as good or slightly better than the one's that are being shut down.
I think it means soe is going to take credit for swg emu.
One day the Phoenix will rise again.

Night-Hawk07

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 317
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #17 on: January 26, 2014, 05:42:35 AM »
What that property is remains to be seen. Obviously it's not going to BE Star Wars since House of Mouse now owns that and made a big point of killing off Lucas Arts right after acquisition, apparently having little interest at the moment of making videogames around its new franchise holdings. (which if you ask me is a pancake move considering what they could have done between the marvel licenses and the lucas talent)

They killed LA's development arm. Its production side is still active, as I understand it. It's possible EA/Lucasarts could get together and publish an MMO like they currently do with TOR, while SOE develops it (like Bioware currently does with TOR). Now, that wouldn't make a lot of sense, seeing as LA was the reason SWG was shut down; believing it and TOR couldn't coexist, but maybe the Mouse was able to persuade them otherwise. After all, I believe there are (or will be) two Marvel based MMOs going.

Btw, we know of at least four SW games coming out in the near future: one being a space shooter game called Attack Squadrons, the new Battlefront game being made by DICE, an unnamed game by Visceral, and finally an as-yet-unnamed, open-world, next gen game.

So I wouldn't say they have "little interest" in making Star Wars video games.

Still, I doubt Smedley was talking about a revival of SWG/SWG2, anything related to Star Wars. Probably just a game that is based on Galaxies' design, but without all the mistakes they made.

therain93

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 574
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #18 on: January 26, 2014, 06:10:08 AM »
SWG gets that honor, I think. They weren't even shut down because of doing bad, they were shut down so SWTOR could come out. A game that feels so completely different I don't understand why they couldn't exist side-by-side.

Licensing was out of SOE's control.
@Texarkana - March 5, 2004 - December 1, 2012 -- Imageshack |-| Youtube
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You don't know what it's like.... |-| Book One. Chapter one...

therain93

  • Elite Boss
  • *****
  • Posts: 574
Re: SOE shutting down four of their MMOs.
« Reply #19 on: January 26, 2014, 06:17:54 AM »
Yeah, I heard about this just last night (my time). SOE has now taken the title of "Most MMO's Killed" away from NCSoft.

Free Realms
Matrix Online
Star Wars: Clone Adventures
Star Wars Galaxies
Vanguard
Wizardry Online

Does it count as killing a game if they saved it for a long time?  Vanguard probably wouldn't have opened if SOE hadn't stepped in and Matrix Online got 4 more years of life when SOE bought it.
@Texarkana - March 5, 2004 - December 1, 2012 -- Imageshack |-| Youtube
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You don't know what it's like.... |-| Book One. Chapter one...