Player Consequences: Closing Time

If you look into the history of modern MMOs, you will notice that most games in the genre are still up and running. In over ten years only a handful have failed and been taken offline by their publishers. That's not to say every MMO has had outstanding success. It's just that the minimum cost to keep these game worlds running is actually quite small. As long as current subscriptions can maintain the servers and minimal support staff, there is no real reason to take a MMO offline. In fact, most game publishers realize that shuttering a MMO is a little bit of a public relations nightmare. It's much better to keep a game running as long as there are any players willing to pay for it.

This doesn't seem to apply in cases where a publisher is worried about a MMO negatively affecting the reputation of another product or license. One particular example of this was The Sims Online, which had been slowly losing subscribers since its launch in 2002. How EA managed to make an under-performing MMO out of one of the bestselling video game franchises in history, I will never know. EA eventually attempted to revive the game by renaming it to EA-land earlier this year. However, it seemed that the renaming was just an attempt to dissociate the MMO from the Sims brand name since they canceled it a few weeks later.

Asheron's Call 2 had a similar problem where a large percentage of the player base for the original game did not like the direction of the sequel. Turbine had greatly modified the gameplay in Asheron's Call 2 and many fans felt it wasn't a true sequel. Turbine most likely would have had better success packaging the game with different lore and setting it up as a separate MMO. Unfortunately, without the support of the fans the sequel was taken offline in 2005 though the original continues to be maintained. It was about this time that publishers started to realize that sequels were probably a bad idea for the MMO genre.

Tabula Rasa was the most recent MMO cancellation announced and it took a majority of its players completely by surprise. The game had never approached the success that NCSoft had hoped for though it wasn't exactly plagued by negative reviews. Some people really enjoyed the blend of first person shooter and MMO gameplay. The problem was that the game took an incredible amount of time and money to develop, which NCSoft probably was never going to recoup at the current subscription numbers. Since NCSoft does have multiple games in its development pipeline, it probably decided that it was better to move its resources.

While this decision is financially sound, it really flies in the face of listening to your customers. It probably would have been a better idea to keep the game alive by using some type of alternative payment plan. Sony Online Entertainment has had great success with its all-access pass and has managed to keep a couple of under-performing MMOs up and running. I honestly think all publishing companies with a collection of old or under-performing games should consider this method. After all, in an industry with few closures it really stands out that NCSoft closed Auto Assault in 2007 and Tabula Rasa in 2009.

In a bit of irony, some of the parting gifts sent to Auto Assault players were invites to beta test the upcoming Tabula Rasa. I sure hope no one fell in love with both games! It just goes to show you the kind of horrible publicity that a MMO closure can cause. NCSoft now runs the risk of building a negative reputation with anyone who liked these games. This is not something they want to happen, especially with their new game, Aion, on the horizon. Players might be hesitant to try out a game from a publisher that has been so quick to cancel them in the past.

Gabriel Runfeldt has been following MMOs ever since he stumbled onto an EverQuest addiction by accident. He eventually managed to fight it off but caught a case of armchair designer syndrome in the process. Now once a week you can catch his mad ravings here at Player Consequences. You can even contact him with any questions at gabriel.runfeldt AT weblogsinc.com