85 mln for social gaming

[longshanks]

Kabam raises $85M for hardcore social gaming business | VentureBeat

interesting article which mentions uo.

 

[Picus at the office]

Hmm, I posted a link to chinese gold farming but it seems to be removed...anyways this is another intersting read:

Chinese prisons force inmates to farm gold in MMO games - The Globe and Mail

 

[Black Sun]

I merged it into the other thread on the topic.
http://vboards.stratics.com/uhall/243074-future-uo-item-based-axis.html

 

[olduofan]

I didn't see any mention of ultima online only lords of ultima I did just skim read it tho

and what ever happen to ea selling the right for uo to the chines to create a game for there own market? I haven't read much on it and haven't heard anything about it in a long time is it still in the "works"

 

[Tina Small]

I didn't see any mention of ultima online only lords of ultima I did just skim read it tho

and what ever happen to ea selling the right for uo to the chines to create a game for there own market? I haven't read much on it and haven't heard anything about it in a long time is it still in the "works"

NetDragon Websoft, Inc. apparently still expects to release a new 3D version of UO in 2012.

http://file.download.91.com/down/ir_e_20110325_2.pdf

 

[longshanks]

my point here is to look at the graphics accompanying the article. its 4 different games with basically the same screen. yet they can raise 85 mln.

can u imagine what uo could raise with some ingenuity and marketing...

 

[Woodsman]

and what ever happen to ea selling the right for uo to the chines to create a game for there own market? I haven't read much on it and haven't heard anything about it in a long time is it still in the "works"

Since the agreement for UO, NetDragon has picked up more lucrative licenses, and they've stopped referencing UO on their main site other than some leftover templates on their site and in templates for their English-language financial letters. I would have been interested to see what they do, even though I know the UO they were talking about would not be compatible with our UO and would be for Asian-language markets. I had assumed that if they had went through with UO, they would use their 2.5 MMORPG engine that they use for their other games.

Interestingly enough, they picked up the Dungeon Keeper license from EA after the UO stuff, and seem more interested in that than they did in UO, the point they are coming out with their own 3D MMORPG based on Dungeon Keeper.

Yeah, think about that. A 3D MMORPG Dungeon Keeper. They are also doing a 3D MMORPG for Transformers based on I think the same engine.

my point here is to look at the graphics accompanying the article. its 4 different games with basically the same screen. yet they can raise 85 mln.

can u imagine what uo could raise with some ingenuity and marketing...

EA is a public traded company. They couldn't go out and raise money like a private company receiving venture capital, and if they could do something like what a private company and venture capitalists do, they would probably sink it into Star Wars or a new Mass Effect or a new Battlefield or Sims game since those make or could make a lot more money than UO. UO doesn't fit into their plans of taking on Activision like a Star Wars Online or Battlefield or Mass Effect, or their sports games for that matter.

EA has the resources if they wanted to really do something with UO. Even when UO makes a profit, EA has cut UO staff, which tells you what EA thinks of UO, unfortunately.

Actually, thinking about it, EA invests in companies or partners up with them like the one you are talking about. If outsiders wanted to invest in EA, they would buy up EA stock and get on the board or whatever.

 

[Trebr Drab]

I just want to point out the threat to our kind of game that this highlights.

Raph Koster of UO and SWG fame has been saying this for years. That our sort of MMORPG (including WoW and all the others) is dying, and this sort of Facebook social games is where all the development money will go to.

Raph points out something known in business science as "the long tail". It's a graph, and it compares the leader in an industry and all the others behind it. And in a healthy industry, what happens is that the leader brings them in, while all the others behind them soak off of the leader and grow, in width if not individually. And at some point that leader loses ground and another takes over as leader, only to see the same thing happen to them.

But the MMO industry has an unhealthy thing going on. The leader stays the leader, and all the others behind them fail to make headway. And it's been proven that this le3ads to a collapse of the entire industry, to be replaced by something else. Some other industry.

It's stagnation illustrated.

What this means is that the MMORPG as we know them will stagnate, and it seems that social games like on Facebook is the heir apparent. Probably a side split of strategy games and a revival in a host of single player types of games.

You can see this happening now, as new games fail to get any real traction and WoW continues to dominate, yet WoW has started showing it's cracks with a 5% loss in subscribers at last report. Stagnation has set in. It's all downhill now, and the movement is towards others kinds of games.

But there is hope, it's not written in stone anywhere. But MMORPGs have to make a change that's worthy of the gamer's interest as "something new". Or "something more", as has been called for in growing numbers for years now.

 

[popps]

That our sort of MMORPG (including WoW and all the others) is dying, and this sort of Facebook social games is where all the development money will go to.

Well, then I guess my personal online multiplayer gaming will end when Ultima Online servers will close down.

Social Networks are not my cup of tea and will never be. I'd rather stop playing online multiplayer games then have to get into any social network to have to play them.

Oh well......

 

[Trebr Drab]

That our sort of MMORPG (including WoW and all the others) is dying, and this sort of Facebook social games is where all the development money will go to.

Well, then I guess my personal online multiplayer gaming will end when Ultima Online servers will close down.

Social Networks are not my cup of tea and will never be. I'd rather stop playing online multiplayer games then have to get into any social network to have to play them.

Oh well......

And the people with the money don't care.

Because what they can make "there" is far more than what they can make from us, in the short term. Long term, though, it'll be the same exact story. Only on speed. Because there's no personal investment in free to play gaming.

And "something more" will still be where it's at. Just delayed. And that's what people like Richard Garriott are chasing after, that end result, and trying to be first to get there.

And don't worry, UO will still be here. There's a demand for it. The death knell is for new games of the WoW clone variety, and also for the Sandbox unless someone tries it. Curt Schilling might be one.

 

[Yellow Beard]

Maybe one day UO will become a player owned company.rolleyes:

 

[Viquire]

We seem dead set in investing in the game and very uncertain as to how to invest in communities.

 

[Woodsman]

You can see this happening now, as new games fail to get any real traction and WoW continues to dominate, yet WoW has started showing it's cracks with a 5% loss in subscribers at last report. Stagnation has set in. It's all downhill now, and the movement is towards others kinds of games.

There are more MMOs and MMO players now than there ever have been, and a new market has opened up with mobile devices and MMOs. It's crazy to see the games the MMOs that are coming out for mobile devices. They may not be as full-featured as an MMO on a PC or a Mac, but that's due to hardware, screen sizes, and internet connection, and hardware is mattering less now that the dual-core CPUs are popping up in phones and in the iPad. The connection problem is serious - AT&T, etc., seem intent on trying to screw us.

Quite frankly, it's a wonder that WoW has done as well as it has - WoW and EVE continuing to grow their playerbases long after their launch is the exception. I don't think Blizzard is concerned too much about a drop with WoW, because they know that they are going to pull in another huge round of customers with the next Diablo and about the time those players get bored, Blizzard will have it's successor to WoW out.

With Star Wars, EA is spending more on a single MMO than any company has ever spent on a game.

Activision Blizzard is potentially doing the same with Titan, which is already deep into development, and it's got the best WoW developers and designers working on it. Nobody knows the budget on Titan, but given that WoW is a billion dollar a year business, it's going to be high. They are taking everything they've learned with WoW and putting it to use in Titan and are planning content out through 2020. There are rumors that they are going to have a scaled down client for iPads as well. Titan will be available just as a lot of players are getting bored with the next Diablo, and they've said that it will make use of social networking.

You've got Dust 514 which is set within the EVE Online universe literally, as in players within Dust 514 can interact with EVE Online players, and it's a console only MMOFPS, and it's charting new territory.

I don't think many companies are going to be doing massive MMOs 5-10 years from now, but MMOs as we know them are here to stay for a while. There are a lot on the horizon, and talk of MMOs going away reminds me of talk about PC and Mac gaming going away. Companies that know what they are doing are going to continue being successful for a long time to come.

EA is the exception. I don't have a lot of faith in Star Wars online, and I fear for UO if Star Wars fails, after seeing what happened to UO when Warhammer failed. EA is run by the same people that were running it during the Mythic acquisition and during Warhammer, and regardless of Star Wars being a BioWare title, I don't see somebody in the upper levels of EA not trying to put their stamp on it or push it out too early.