World War 2 MMOs Are on the Way

It’s crazy how popular World War 2 themed games are on consoles.
Just look at all the WW2 shooters and strategy games out there. Amongst
gamers, the World War 2 setting is probably regarded one of the most
over used. Even though its over used on consoles and traditional PC
games, it’s fairly unique to the free to play MMO space. There really
aren’t that many world war 2 themed games on the market. The only one I
can think of off the top of my head is Heroes in the Sky
from GamesCampus, and
that one released on July 1, 2010 making it a new release. I guess the
reason why World War 2
themed free MMOs never found their way to the market is because most
of these games are developed in South Korea or China, which weren’t
major players in the second great war. Chinese MMORPGs
tend to focus on the “Three Kingdoms” era of Chinese history, which is
why there are so many games with “three kingdoms” in their title
including Heroes of
Three Kingdoms, Warriors
of the Three Kingdoms and Three Kingdoms:
The Battle Begins. Korean MMOs on the other hand tend to have more
cutsey graphics or realistic, but set in a fantasy world.

Since Western developers began embracing the free to play business
model recently, MMO gamers should expect an influx of World War 2
themed games. Ubisoft plans on releasing Company
of Heroes Online and Electronic Arts
already released Battlefield Heroes,
which although cartoony is set during World War 2. Even Eastern
developers are starting to work on their own World War 2 themed games.
WarGaming plans on releasing World of Tanks soon
while ijji
has already done a closed beta test for Karma:
Operation Barbarossa – a World War 2 themed MMOFPS (The first of
its kind). Aside from these announced titles, I’m sure both Western and
Eastern MMO
developers have plans to release other World War 2 themed games in
the future.

I’m actually surprised there are no World War 2 themed “MMORPGs” on
the market. You’d think that with 100+ fantasy
themed MMORPGs on the market, someone would release an MMORPG set
during World War 2. Come to think of it, there are very few modern
(calling World War 2 modern is a stretch, I know) themed MMORPGs out
there. In fact, I don’t think there are any. Second Life may qualify,
but that’s more of a sandbox game than anything else and has both
fantasy, sci-fi and modern elements in it. I’m actually curious now why
there aren’t any modern themed MMORPGs out there.