BigPoint is Launching Many new MMOs

BigPoint – the MMO publisher behind numerous browser based games including SeaFight, Dark Orbit and Deepolis announced many new free to play MMORPGs recently. BigPoint is probably best known for their simple 2D browser based games, but they’ve recently begun embracing more complex 3D MMORPGs. Maestia is one of these games. I’m pretty sure BigPoint didn’t actually develop Maestia, but they will be the company publishing the game in Europe. Maestia finished its closed beta testing in August and launched into open beta on September 15, 2010. Unfortunately, Maestia seems to be EU only – so North American players won’t get a chance to play it.

BigPoint also launched Poisonville into open beta recently. Poisonville is a game fully developed and published by BigPoint. It’s actually their most expensive MMO ever developed – clocking in at around $2 million in developments costs. The game isn’t too impressive visually, even though its 3D, but its gameplay looks like a lot of fun. Poisonville is trying to capture the “fun” of Grand Theft Auto and APB and bring it to a much more accessible level on the web browser. Unfortunately APB shut down recently and was a big MMORPG flop, so hopefully Poisonville doesn’t meet the same fate. Aside from these two games though, BigPoint has been expanding like crazy.

They launched a slew of new games in 2010 including Farmerama – a browser based farming MMO that was designed to compete with Farmville which Zynga makes. So it looks like BigPoint is entering Zynga’s turf. Farmerma isn’t exactly a social game the same way Mafia Wars, Pet Society and NightClub city is, but it still competes with FarmVille – which is Zynga’s most popular game. I’d like to see BigPoint launch some facebook games too – as browser based MMOs can easily be integrated into facebook.

So with BigPoint rocking the browser game space, launching 3D games and publishing popular third party MMORPGs like Maestia – what’s next? I’d like to see BigPoint focus more on launching and licensing games globally though. I Feel that’s what made Dark Orbit and SeaFight super popular – global access. Maestia is EU only at the moment – the same way Martial Empires from Gamigo is EU only. Also the same way GamerKraft has Priston Tale 2 in EU only and Suba Games has it in the U.S. One large server would definitely have been better for both the developers and players.

Older Free to Play MMORPGs Are Still Alive and Well

With legend of Edda, Iris Online, CosmicBreak and a ton of other new MMORPGs coming out, a lot of people forget about the older MMORPGs that are still alive and kicking. Archlord and Mu Online on the Webzen gaming portal for example are still alive and kicking. Mu Online is actually a really old Diablo inspired MMORPG with a sizable playerbase. Battle of the Immortals and even Erebus Travia Reborn are both newer and better titles – but people are still sticking with the game. Archlord is an old 3D fantasy MMORPG that used to be pay to play, but went free to play. The game has been out for well over 4 years now and it’s still around. Ace Online and Luminary: Rise of the Goonzy both borrowed the whole “Rule the server” feature from Archlord.

Other older MMORPGs like AstroN, 9Dragons and Cabal Online are around too. AstroN is published by GameIs the same company behind the Carom3D billiards MMO. It’s a sci-fi MMORPG thats been around since 2006 or so. 9Dragons used to be published by Acclaim, but it’s now being published by GamersFirst – as they bought the license for the game after Acclaim went bankrupt. Cabal Online used to be published by Ogplanet, but the developer of the game yanked the license from them. Now it’s being published world-wide on the developer’s own website. Which is sort of neat I guess.

Newer MMOs are fun and all, but I think too many people are ignoring some of the great older games. New doesn’t always mean better either. The Fists of Fu game from Outspark and Mission Against Terror FPS from Suba Games for example are two brand spankin new MMOs that are absolute trash. Both games releaed in late 2010 too! Some newer games are great, but I like to stick with some of the classics that helped re-define the genre. Maplestory and RuneScape are two such games. They were really the first mega popular free to play games. After they had huge success in North America – other companies starting launching their games here. Nowdays we have all sorts of free to play MMOs from the golfing MMO Pangya to a DotA like Avalon Heroes. There are well over 200 free to play titles out there – not counting browser based games.

So which game should you play? Old or new? Both.I personally like to play games with large playerbases, as I feel that an MMO isn’t worth playing if it doesn’t have a large and growing playerbase. So I like to play all sorts of games. I’m looking forward to that new action MMORPG from Nexon though – the one everyone really wants to play – Vindictus. Any new MMORPGs you guys are looking forward to?

We Need More Indy MMORPGs

I think independent game developers can be very successful if they make free to play MMORPGs. Forget developing regular PC games or console games – MMOs are the way to go. Why? Because one successful game can bring in a steady stream of revenue. Just look at Eternal Lands – the 3D fantasy MMORPG that looks a lot like RuneScape from Jagex – the game is very popular. It has some 400+ users online at all times. That’s more than ACTUAL MMORPGs like Robo Smasher from KRU Interactive and Outer Galaxies – a sci-fi themed browser based game. So how is it that an indy game like Eternal Lands can have so many players while commercial games can’t? Well – it’s simple. Indy developers tend to pay more attention to what their community actually wants. Companies like Aeria Games, Uforia and gPotato can’t always do this – especially since they publish more than one game. Just look at gPotato – they publish Luna Online, Aika Online, Allods Online, Fly For Fun, Iris Online and numerous other free to play games. They can’t just focus on one game – they’re always looking to launch new games and try to make more money, so it’s hard to focus on just one thing.

So where are all the indy game developers? They’re off making games for the Xbox-live arcade or launching flash games on sites like Newgrounds. I think they can be much more successful if they focus on free to play games. There are quite a bit of Indy browser based games like Fallen Sword and Dragon Fable, but there are very few client based indy MMOs. Earth Eternal is like the only one. Dreamlords and Saga are two others, but that’s it. All the major games, such as Battlefield Heroes, Rappelz, Metin 2 and Wizard101 are all developed and published by major companies. Games by big companies aren’t bad, but indy games tend to bring more innovation – as major game studios have been releasing the same old wow clones over and over again.

I think the future for indy free to play MMOs is with the Unity Web Player. The Unity Web Player is capable of rendering gorgeous 3D graphics on web browsers and game developers can use the Unity Web Development platform to design their games for free. That’s right, game developers can develop full 3D games entirely for free on the Unity Web player. This isn’t some cheap game development software like RPG Maker either. This is the real deal. It’s the same platform Captains of Darktide and Fusionfall use – two major browser based MMOs. Both with top notch graphics too.

Anyway. Indy game developers… you guys need to start embracing the free to play MMO model.

OutSpark – The MMO Publisher is being Bought

Well, It looks like it’s official OutSpark
will be bought out by another company. Well, the deal hasn’t been
inked yet, but they did confirm they were in late-stage talks with their
suitor. Yeah, I’m talking about the same OutSpark who’s best known for
publishing Fiesta Online – an anime inspired 3D MMORPG and Secret of the Solstice – a Ragnarok Online like game. Of course they publish other games too – like the upcoming Erebus Travia Reborn and Divine Souls
– but I wanted to focus on their two most popular games which are
Fiesta and Secret of the Solstice. Word on the street is that Shanda
Games – a large Chinese MMORPG developer and publisher will be acquiring them.

Why is this company buying OutSpark? To expand into the free to play
market most likely. OutSpark is a pretty big publisher too. Aside from
the games they currently have on the market – they’re releasing Luvinia Online
and Divine Souls soon. Plus, they announced that they would release
many more games in the near future. The fact that they’re being bought
out is a big vote of confidence for free to play games in North America.
These games have always been popular in Asia, but the concept of free
to play with micro-transactions is still fairly new to the West. In
fact, these games are so big in Asia, that there really aren’t any pay
to play games in Asia, aside from a few really high quality games. One
game in South Korea – Kart Rider from Nexon is so popular that nearly a
third of South Korea’s entire population has played the racing game at
least once. It’s much more popular than more realistic racing games
like Need for Speed World or Ray City from Electronic Arts. So for those that say Graphics do matter, Why is Kart Rider – a much worse looking game than Need for Speed so successful?

Aside from OutSpark being bought, EverQuest II re-launching as a free to play game has also been a big vote of confidence for the industry. The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine is also set to go free to play on September 10. Remember when Turbine launched Dungeons and Dragons Online
as a free to play game? I remember their CEO saying something like
their revenues have increased over 500% since going free to play. I
really hope that they have success with The Lord of the Rings Online, as
if it does well – it would pave the way for Lineage 2 and Warhammer Online to go free to play. Regardless of its success, I actually thing Lineage 2 will go free to play. Even Warhammer Online will go free to play in the not so distance future. That’s a story for another day though.

I think Electronic Arts will soon be focusing more on free to play games. Their Lord of Ultima browser MMO and Battlefield Heroes MMOFPS have done quite well so far. I Can’t say the same for FIFA Online or Battleforge,
as they both have very few players. I think the blame there lies in EA
though for not properly marketing these games. I bet if more people
played them, they would be hooked.