Ten Ton Hammer - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

Jon Virtes
Community Manager, Runes of Magic

John Virtes's Runes of Magic avatar

First of all, it needs to be said that vision and the bottom line have to co-exist, whether it is big business or small business. You cannot have one without the other and expect to remain in business for long.

As for the 800 lb gorilla, the market leader can always teach us a lot; they run their service very well and there are lessons to be learned. We also need to remember it took them time to build up to where they are now and it was not always easy. (I remember sitting in server queues!) But it is also something of an anomaly, such a freakishly large success that it distorts the real picture of the genre. Sometimes you need to look at the MMO market and remove it from the picture, to see the forest through the trees. If you constantly compare your company or your game to this one behemoth example it will drive you crazy and likely lead you in the wrong direction for your product.

The trick is finding a business model that works for you and sticking to it.

---

Cedric Gerard
International Marketing Manager, Ankama Games

Competition is going to be at its peak in the online games market this year, with every major publisher fighting for a slice of the pie. EA has acquired Playfish, and other major publishers are acquiring well established online games studios, investing in them, or developing partnerships with them.

AAA 3D is definitely not a guarantee of success. If you look at Tabula Rasa and Age of Conan, dozens of millions have been invested in those games and they have not been as successful as expected. The market is no longer limited to AAA 3D MMOGs--that may have been the case 5 years ago, but the situation is completely different

Cedric Gerard of Ankama

now.

The MMOG offer is now very diversified with all game styles covered and all possible technologies used. Browser-based games cannot be ignored; companies such as Bigpoint and Gameforge have generated much more revenue in the last year than most major studios. They are very profitable companies with cost effective development and impressive online reach, they do not have to fight the classic retail battle that hit publishers so hard in 2009.

So, is World of Warcraft still the one to beat? Blizzard has produced a high standard and a very complete casual 3D MMO, and it surely gets the success it deserves. But the lifetime of their players is probably not higher than other similar subscription MMOGs--players move on eventually. As long as a developer can attract a small percentage of their players, they should be fine.

If you’re a MMOG developer, and revenue is your goal, should you go against Blizzard and try to emulate what they are doing? Probably not; you should try your own way. That’s why EA and others are investing in studios that know what they are doing.

We still have yet to see a successful console MMOG. There have been attempts but consoles’ peripherals (and some say audiences) hardly suit classic MMO gaming. Studios will have to move away from thinking of how to adapt a PC MMO to consoles, and start thinking about how to develop console specific MMOGs. Console DLC will also have to evolve; it is too blunt now, and quality is often not the goal. Players can be very discerning about the quality of DLC; you have to impress them if you want them to make that purchase.

---

Peter Cesario
Director of New Business and Product Development, True Games Interactive

Since the start of the current economic downturn, we have no doubt felt a renewed tendency towards conservatism

Peter Cesario of True Games Interactive

by investors and publishers throughout the online game space. Perhaps slightly less so in the free to play sector; though I can definitely say it is still extremely difficult, if not nearly impossible, to get a project greenlit if it can be even remotely deemed “niche” or risky.  That said, attempting to go the “safe” route results in a head to head with World of Warcraft, which has proven to be a losing proposition time and again and I think most everyone in the industry recognizes that by now and have been forced to get a little more creative with their strategies.

This is why True Games has chosen what we feel is a great middle-ground with a title like Mytheon. By targeting a wildly popular genre like “Action-RPG”--which has been quite successful overall for a long time, though still relatively underrepresented in the multiplayer online space--we feel like we’re satisfying that need for risk aversion by investors while at the same time avoiding that dreaded toe to toe battle with the so called 800 lb gorilla.