MMOGs: Inevitable Shakeout Underway

Joseph Laszlo | February 13, 2004, 11:22 AM

The past couple of weeks have seen two rather high profile MMOG offerings pull the plug on themselves: Uru [Wired News coverage], a tie-in to the latest installment in the Myst series of offline games, and Microsoft's still-under-development Mythica [Gamespy interview].

From the Mythica site: "Based on a careful evaluation of the competitive MMORPG landscape, Microsoft Game Studios has decided to cancel the Windows-based game “Mythica.” As a result of this effort, job eliminations within Microsoft Game Studios will take place, and up to 40 employees may be impacted."

I'd expect to see similar reevaluation of the "competitive MMORPG landscape" from other would-be entrants this year. I've written about [Jupiter report, available to research clients] the limited nature of the MMORPG audience in the past. At this stage, neither tie-ins to existing brands or worlds (Uru, like Sims Online and Star Wars: Galaxies), nor "original" games that retread the fantasy genre have any kind of guarantee of success.

I respect UbiSoft and Microsoft for realizing things looked bad and cutting losses quickly, rather than prolonging what evidently was a losing proposition.

While I'm on the topic, also recommend taking a look at Kevin Hannah's Stratics year-end review of multi-user world games like There and Second Life that began to gain a foothold last year; it's a well-written insiders' take on what those guys aren't doing right. I think there's more to it, but I largely agree with his main points: too soon; too expensive; too adult; not enough to do; not enough marketing or awareness.