Blizzard Likes Star Wars MMO, Continues Describing Next-Gen MMO
Sams warned that BioWare may not be expecting "players smacking them around"--no doubt in reference to an unforgiving Internet public--according to VideoGamer.com. The Blizzard executive also reminded BioWare of the online issues that plague MMO launches.
Thanks to the company's Battle.net service, "we had a level of experience that candidly no other game company had and so a lot of the bumps and bruises that we got would have been substantially, monumentally worse," said Sams of the experience of launching World of Warcraft.
Even for the accomplished BioWare, Sams implied that launching an MMO could still be an uphill battle. "You can have a great developer and you can have a great license but that's not it. Those are two of the key components to give you a shot, and so they [BioWare] have that for sure."
Speaking on Blizzard's next MMO, Sams reiterated Blizzard's intention not to make the new game a sequel to World of Warcraft. "There's no details about it at this point, but while we're doing it that does not suggest that it has to be a sequel," he said.
Instead, the 11-million-strong MMO will continue receiving expansions "for so long as there's a meaningful number of players that are interested in playing it."
Little is known about Blizzard's still-under-wraps "next-gen MMO" other than it is "cool, and new, and different," and potentially headed to consoles.
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skryte
replyi don't recall blizzard's enormous online experience really making the WoW launch particularly smooth. instead i remember my server being down more than it was up. i remember getting a free month of service because it sucked so bad.
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I don't know why they keep mentioning how smooth there launch was... I honestly don't think anyone there remembers how much it totally sucked.
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[deleted]
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Relative to other MMOs it was an very smooth launch. Especially when you consider that not only were there insane amounts of people subbing, but that they didn't expect a number that large.
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[deleted]
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I don't see where you get all that from my post. Anything worthwhile to add?
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Blizzard was forecasting a max of 1 million subs for WoW, considering the previously largest sub base in a western MMO was Everquest which maxed at around 500k subs. They were not prepared for the 3 million or so people that flooded their servers at launch.
-X
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They had about 450k users at the start, not 3 million. They planned for 200k with a gradual expansion to 400k.
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WoW was my 4th MMOG and until that point it had the smoothes launch. The first day there were poeple and that was fine but the trouble didn't start several days later when the servers were slammed. There were a few bugs here and there, but I think it was the sheer amount of players trying to play that really raped the launch.
Best launch that I've had so far was WAR and AoC was a little buggy too but not too bad. Both games are great BTW, wish I had time to play all 3, let alone 1.-
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[deleted]
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Secretly, I like a bad launch, but only when it's because there are much more players then expected.
I'd hate to be in a smooth MMO launch just because there is a 1:1 players:servers ratio.
Instantly feels like you're part of something, and you've got something to whine about in the channels :)
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