by Jeff Woleslagle on Nov 02, 2009
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November used to be the month of MMO expansions, now it seems like every developer is angling for their own spot on a crowded release date calendar. What's behind a mostly expac-less month this year? Is December the new November? Thoughts on this topic, plus links to Brad McQuaid and Star Trek Online interviews you don't want to miss in today's Loading... Expansion Month?
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results: href="http://www.gunnars.com/">
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"Biggest movers today:
Torchlight (UP 9 to #12) Star Trek Online (UP 9 to #11) DragonAge: Origins (UP 8 to #19) RecentWelcome to November, which is Pancreatic, Diabetes, Lung Cancer, Alzheimer's, and Crohn's Disease Awareness Month, as well as National Novel Writing Month (it's a short month so we'd better get started), and the month that the Roman Catholic church as dedicated to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
Perhaps that last one was why, once upon a time, MMO gamers used to view November as "expansion month." Containing the launch date anniversary of EverQuest, EverQuest 2, and World of Warcraft, for a time developers made a habit of throwing their titles a birthday party with retail expansions. Other games, like Dark Age of Camelot, regularly followed suit with November expansions, and Lord of the Rings Online got in on the action with a November release of Mines of Moria last year.
November release dates made sense for a few reasons - it's the holiday season, and what better gift for the gamer in your life than more loot, levels and replayability? November also has that most coveted of gamer possessions - a built-in long holiday weekend. I remember picking up a few EQ expansions before heading home from college for the Thanksgiving holiday - what better way to spend a post-gluttenous stupor than in Velious? Plus, the majority of highly anticipated PC and console titles ship by early November (DragonAge and CoD Modern Combat 2 will round out this year's offerings by Nov. 10th), leaving the more introverted MMO titles with a brief window for marketing impact.
But Blizzard broke the anniversary tradition with a January release of Burning Crusade, and this year Turbine and SOE elected to launch expansion later in the season. LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood, EverQuest: Underfoot, and EVE Online: Dominion are slated to launch in December and EverQuest 2: Sentinel's Fate has been given a fuzzy date of February 2010. The other Pulse Top 10 expansions on the radar, Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer and World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, haven't set a release date at this time.
Why the de-Novemberization of MMO retail expansions? With already thin profit margins and blistering expectations from players and investors, it's entirely possible that MMO developers and marketeers found it too hot in the holiday ramp-up kitchen. Pre-orders and account-based download only expansions complicated the mix for non-gamer gift-givers, taking some of the holiday-ness out of expansions. But the simplest explanation is probably the best one - once the industry lost its rhythm, once there was no reason for a November push, everyone opted for what they saw as a clear spot on the marketing schedule. The danger is that MMOs, on the whole, might lose ground against "less online" games in the battle for your gaming time and dollar
Do you miss the days of regular November expansions? Are you playing more non-MMO games this holiday season than you did a year or two years ago? Sound off in the Loading... forums!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our Articles, News & Events Discussion forum
Fallout MMOG Project V13 - Concept Art
Lawsuits
be damned, Interplay has released some concept art from the Fallout V13
MMOG. How are gamers receiving the idea of a Fallout MMOG? Opinions
seem to vary, as the epic quotes below demonstrate. Head over to our
news forum to view the concept art and have your say.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"No good can come of this."
- kitsunegirl
"They have Masthead Studios working with them on it. Shouldn't be hard
for them to produce something pretty amazing as Earthrise sounds like
it is going to be excellent."
- bobfish
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell
us!
5 New Ten Ton Hammer MMOG
features today! 5 in November! 2,077
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Today's
New Features & Guides
Managing Fan Expectations - An Interview with Vanguard Visionary Brad McQuaid
Hottest Content:
Managing Fan Expectations - An Interview with Vanguard Visionary Brad McQuaid Star Trek Online Space Combat Q&A with Craig Zinkievich href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/classes/cleric_healing">The- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer
team