D&D 4E Bioware working on 4e Forgotten Realms MMO

[captaincursor]

Atari has published all D&D licensed games up to this point, and unless I missed some big announcement they still do. Besides Bioware hasn't done a d20 game since KotOR, so they've moved on to bigger and more lucrative IP. I'd go with the Star Wars MMO over the 4ed forgotten realms game.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

The MMO has been in development for some time, but I never heard them mention it being wholly owned IP, nor have I heard what genre it was going to be. Star Wars might be a possibility, but then it could be a Mass Effect MMORPG. Has there been any good sci-fi/space type MMORPGs?

Eve Online, but it hasn't been a giant success. The merger with White Wolf seems to be more speculative than based on crazy MMORPG money the founders are bathing in or anything.

 

[WayneLigon]

That's pretty insane and the only fantasy property that I can possibly think of that would be worth $860M.

Could be. I dunno if any fantasy property is worth that amount of money but obviously one is that isn't Star Wars. I'd say Conan if we didn't already know Age of Conan was about to come out. It ain't Warhammer Online. Wheel of Time, perhaps?

 

[Reynard]

As a property its certainly bigger. As a fantasy MMO? I'd definitely give that to the Realms. From Gamasutra (and yeah its two years old):

The survey found that the typical MMO player is a male between the ages of 13 and 34, with a mean age of 27. About half of them were heavy users, playing over 18 hours a week, and half more casual players who put in only 10-12 hours.


You think an MMO based on Harry Potter can appeal to that age bracket? Sorry, I don't think so.

I don't know a single adult fantasy fan that hasn't read the HP books, so citing an "older" crowd as a reason why it wouldn't be HP doesn't jive with my experiences. Also, how much is $860M as far as licenses go? Where does it rate in relationship to licenses like Star Wars or LotR? I'd highly doubt someone would shell out equivalent cash for Forgotten Realms, or any D&D property, as they would for either of those two -- which both garnered about a billion dollars a film in worldwide ticket sales.

 

[trancejeremy]

Well, I think EA bought Bioware for more than just the upcoming MMORG. Mass Effect alone is probably worth $150 million at least (figure 3 games, 1.5 million copies or so each). EA also has the Lord of the Rings movie license, I believe, and yet haven't really delivered a truly great product with it. They've tried with RPGs before, including a failed attempt at an Elder Scrolls style game that never materialized, but haven't had any major success. After seeing Oblivion rake in the dough, they want a piece of that action, too.

Most the rumors I've heard about Bioware Austins's mystery RPG is that its Star Wars.

 

[Scott_Rouse]

The D&D (and it's worlds like FR & EBR) rights are held by Atari. I will being meeting with them on Tuesday in NYC to talk about their plans for D&D. Bioware or EA are not working on any D&D projects so the "secret project" is something else.

Wouldn't Lucas Arts be doing all Star Wars games?

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I'm changing my vote to a My Little Pony MMORPG.

 

[HRG]

Most the rumors I've heard about Bioware Austins's mystery RPG is that its Star Wars.

A Knights of the Old Republic mmo is what I keep hearing rumors about...and it's the only license I can think of that might be worth 800+ million, aside from Harry Potter, or Marvel or DC (both of which already have mmo's on the way) or maybe the Lord of the Rings movie version?

I dig Forgotten Realms but I don't really see someone paying 800 million for it...unless I'm way out of touch (which is possible, I know squat about licensing).

It's fascinating, either way. I can't wait to see what this turns out to be.

Oooooohhhhh.....what if they mapped out Waterdeep all the way down to the streetlamps and turned it into a city-based mmo or something....

 

[HRG]

The D&D (and it's worlds like FR & EBR) rights are held by Atari. I will being meeting with them on Tuesday in NYC to talk about their plans for D&D.

Eat brains, gain knowledge!

/Planet Terror

 

[PeterWeller]

Wouldn't Lucas Arts be doing all Star Wars games?

They did go with Sony Online Entertainment for Star Wars Galaxies, though I believe the development was shared (and if the rumors I heard were correct, that game's ultimate failure rested on the shoulders of the SOE side of the equation).

I was an early fan of SWG*, and I played it for about 18 months immediately after release, so I paid a lot of attention to the train wreck that game became. Towards the end of my period reading and pondering the downward spiral of SWG, I heard rumors that Lucas was pulling the license from Sony and giving it to Bioware, so I'm going to guess that this big, super secret project is the new SWG. If that is the case, let's all cross our fingers and hope smugglers will be able to smuggle.


*"Why, oh why?" you ask. SWG, for all its mechanical faults, was one MMO that truly tried to make actual role playing and character interaction an important, and in many ways, the important part of the game.