El Mahdi
Muad'Dib of the Anauroch
By Chris Morris | Plugged In
Just a few short years ago, massively-multiplayer online games (MMOs) were considered the future of gaming.
Virtually every publisher was running one, building one, or contemplating one. A lot of those failed. A few struggled along with small but loyal audiences. And all of them acknowledged that they lived under the shadow of perennial champ World of Warcraft.
These days, though, massively-multiplayer online worlds are beset by bad news. World of Warcraft lost 1.1 million customers in the last three months. It's lost 2 million in the past year. Meanwhile, EA's highly anticipated entry in the field -- Star Wars: The Old Republic -- failed to take off, with subscriptions dropping to under 1 million last quarter. It was an incredibly rapid drop from the 2 million subscriber peak of earlier this year.
With these two behemoths having serious issues, is the entire genre on the outs? Not necessarily, but it's definitely changing -- and that could be great news for consumers who have grown sick and tired of forking over monthly fees for online games.
...rest of article here: Is the MMO dying? | Games Blog - Yahoo! Games
Just a few short years ago, massively-multiplayer online games (MMOs) were considered the future of gaming.
Virtually every publisher was running one, building one, or contemplating one. A lot of those failed. A few struggled along with small but loyal audiences. And all of them acknowledged that they lived under the shadow of perennial champ World of Warcraft.
These days, though, massively-multiplayer online worlds are beset by bad news. World of Warcraft lost 1.1 million customers in the last three months. It's lost 2 million in the past year. Meanwhile, EA's highly anticipated entry in the field -- Star Wars: The Old Republic -- failed to take off, with subscriptions dropping to under 1 million last quarter. It was an incredibly rapid drop from the 2 million subscriber peak of earlier this year.
With these two behemoths having serious issues, is the entire genre on the outs? Not necessarily, but it's definitely changing -- and that could be great news for consumers who have grown sick and tired of forking over monthly fees for online games.
...rest of article here: Is the MMO dying? | Games Blog - Yahoo! Games