Microsoft Destroyer of MMOs: How Do They Do It
By Shawn on Wednesday, April 30th, 2008 at 8:17 PM PST In Computer, Game Companies, Game Consoles, Game Platforms, Games, Microsoft, Microsoft, Sony, Sony
Journalist and MMO commentator Michael Zenke has written an article explaining his theory on why Microsoft has a black thumb when it comes to MMOs. Microsoft has a bad track record with the genre. Marvel Universe Online is the latest title to make the list of its failed games; which include Asheron’s Call 2, Mythica, True Fantasy Online and Vanguard.
Zenke chalks many of the casualties up to poor planning and lack of foresight. He also cites preoccupation with Xbox Live as an obstacle to cashing in on porting MMOs to its console.
Of course Microsoft’s failure has made it that much better for Sony. SOE has very successfully capitalized on the MMO market including porting them to the PS2 and PS3 consoles.
Zenke presents a very simplified theory, but I happen to think it’s a sound one. Take a look at all the evidence and judge for yourself.
via Gamasutra
Microsoft has ruined every game they’ve made, save Halo, which I think is crap but people seem to eat up like it were made of gold.
Microsoft didn’t make Halo Bungie did get your facts straight.
Microsoft kills MMOs before release and minimizes expenses. SOE kills MMOs after release, after hyping it up a LOT. Case in point: Vanguard (Yes, Vanguard is an SOE game.) They killed Planetside too, which they didn’t even develop or publish, but simply bought after it came out. Maybe I just dislike SOE more because I’ve never actually played a Microsoft MMO, but it seems to me like there’s been a lot of anticipation of Microsoft MMOs and not a lot of criticism, while there’s been a lot of both for SOE games. Although the anticipation and criticism are directly opposite, and upon release anticipation plummets while criticism spikes.
Marvel Universe Online? Hell, never even heard of that one. To be fair though, SOE also did it’s fair share of ruining Vanguard, and surprisingly neither company completely ruined it, and it’s actually slowly getting better. Of course, that’s not to say AoC or WAR won’t crush it.