Comments on: A Look at Microsoft and MMOs: 3-0 Cancels

By: McValdemar

McValdemar — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:13:55 +0000

Nice article but you have to add more on the subject!

I’m very pleasedby Xbox/360 but I agree with U about the chronical incapacity of MS of handling a MMOG, andis sad since they wont to be the choice for “online gaming”.
They also falied one of the most waited XBox game: True Fantasy Online.
Heavily funded by MS and developed by Level 5.
Sounded to be awesome.
Cutted down with nonsense.

Asfar as I know they were also behind Citizen Zero, not properly a MMORPG but was said to be a MMOG.

Will they risk going to the end only “pretcted” by the Halo brand?
Dunno.

But for meMShas ZERO credibility on MMORPGS.

BTW forgive my poor english but I’m italian!

By: Chemical O

Chemical O — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 05:05:43 +0000

Does True Fantasy Live for the xbox count???

By: Louis

Louis — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 04:23:07 +0000

True Fantasy Live Online, hello??? Level-5 geniuses were denied by Microsoft

By: MMORPG - MMOCrunch - World of Warcraft » Could Microsoft be Publishing APB?

MMORPG - MMOCrunch - World of Warcraft » Could Microsoft be Publishing APB? — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 21:28:57 +0000

[...] recently wrote up a post explaining Microsoft’s enigmatic history with MMORPGs. To put it short they have a vaporous history with them. However, given that the cancellation of [...]

By: Graktar

Graktar — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:17:53 +0000

Mythica was my most-anticipated MMORPG of its day, and I was very sad when Microsoft canned it. The fact that they have now twice canceled an MMO for fear of competition makes me wonder why they ever bothered. Of course there’s competition. There’s always competition for pretty much any product MS is going to release. While it’s true that there isn’t enough room in the MMO market for multiple games with WoW’s subscriber base, there is plenty of room for games with LotRO, CoH, or EQ2 subscriber levels. All of those games are profitable and continue to generate new content (at a faster rate than the industry leader, WoW, I might add).

Mostly what this tells me is Microsoft is suffering from big-boy syndrome. If they can’t release an MMO that’s going to be #1 in the market, they don’t want to bother. Both Mythica and Marvel Universe Online would have been profitable, maybe even wildly so. But they wouldn’t be hitting WoW levels of subscription, so MS decided to forget about it. I’ll be surprised if MS bothers to invest in an MMO again, and doubly surprised if they don’t cancel it part way through.

By: Geoff

Geoff — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 16:14:17 +0000

Vanguard is beyond the beta stage, however, its launch was a disaster. The game was essentially in beta when it launched and therefor the game was almost destroyed. While the game still lives on, it won’t ever be a popular MMORPG because of the launch. As such, it was doomed from the beginning.

By: Jentis

Jentis — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:45:53 +0000

Agree with Qix and I don’t think we can say they’re ruining their own products.

I mean Mythica was simply meh, VGSoH was way out of the timeline as pointed out and would probably cost too much to get on track, hence it’s very early release and as for Champion Online, I don’t think their is enough space for two super heroes MMOs.

So basically, in my point of view MS took the right business decisions so far.

By: Qix

Qix — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 04:33:06 +0000

While I do find Microsoft’s record humorous, there is more to it than that. What that tells me is that Microsoft is not willing to produce an inferior product, if things don’t look good, its sold or killed. How much of that is caused by Microsoft themselves? That is the question. Granted, they are not MMO’s, but Blizzard is notorious for doing the same thing. And because of it they have a near perfect release record. Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo and WoW are all the best of their respective genre. Personally i think ax-ing the inferior games is a good thing.
But the big question still remains, is Microsoft doing something to ruin their own games? Are they the cause of their own problems…

By: Random Poster

Random Poster — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 01:41:49 +0000

“Microsoft’s other fantasy MMO, Vanguard, was not to be killed off but rather sold off.
…
In the end, however, not even SOE would continue funding the game and as such it was released in a “beta” stage that has forever cursed the game to oblivion.”

What do you mean by oblivion? I picked up this game last year. While it wasn’t all that, it still made it to retail, and to me that’s beyond the “beta” stage.