Jack Emmert (City of Heroes, Neverwinter) has been working on MMORPGs since 2003 and has recently announced his next game. In an interview, he emphasizes how much players are looking for a new MMO and explains why we haven’t had a good Western title for so long.
What does the developer say? Emmert recently announced his new MMORPG. It will be a Warhammer title that will likely focus on PvE and will be released for PC and consoles.
In an interview, the questioner wanted to know what the state of MMORPGs is in 2023. The developer explains that after the success of World of Warcraft, many tried to copy the concept:
This meant investing a lot of money, which in turn required a lot of profit. A big success was needed, bigger than Warcraft.
And when they couldn’t achieve that – and of course they couldn’t, World of Warcraft was unique – most major studios gave up on MMOs. To this day, we live in a world where there are very few MMOs in the West.
Nevertheless, Emmert believes that the demand for such games is still very high and takes New World as an example:
When New World came out, trillions of copies were sold – far over 10 million, which is amazing. That tells me that there are people who want to play an MMO, but there is no one to create them.
He himself wants to be exactly that person who makes an MMORPG for the masses. His philosophy is that a good MMO thrives on stories and the players. Emmert wants to create an immersive world with his game in which he himself, as a Warhammer fan, loves to immerse.
WoW killers
almost killed the MMOs, but there are some hopes
Is Emmert alone in this opinion? No, because the generation of WoW killers
has also been problematic from the perspective of other developers.
We at MeinMMO spoke in 2020 with MMORPG legends Raph Koster – lead designer of Ultima Online and head of Star Wars Galaxies – and Gordon Walton (SWTOR and Crowfall).
At that time, both had a similar explanation approach. Walton said that the WoW killers
had caused the genre to experience hardly any innovations for years. Koster supplemented the statement with an anecdote about funding:
That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t made MMOs for so long. Because if you wanted to make an MMO, no one would give you money unless you competed with WoW. And to compete with WoW, you have to exceed it [financially]. That’s a ridiculous amount of money that almost no one in the industry can raise.
Is the MMORPG genre lost? No, because currently, New World and Lost Ark have shown that many players are eager for a new MMORPG. And that is leading to a slight trend reversal.
Because the last major Western games were WildStar and ESO, which came out in 2014. Between 2014 and 2021, Black Desert and WoW Classic were the only highlights, and for a long time, there were no real hope bearers on the horizon.
However, that has changed:
- Riot Games is working on an MMORPG for League of Legends. Although there is hardly any information about it, it is already considered a big hope bearer because Riot is one of the few studios that can financially support a large MMORPG.
- Zenimax (ESO) has been working on a new game since 2019.
- NCSoft and Sony are supposedly working together on an MMORPG for the Horizon IP.
- With Palia (Social-MMO), Pax Dei (Sandbox), Chono Odyssey (strong combat system in the trailer) and Ashes of Creation, there are at least four indie titles that make a good impression.
And even that is by no means all MMORPGs in development. With Throne and Liberty and Blue Protocol, two new games are on the starting blocks that Amazon is bringing to us in the West. Also, ArcheAge 2, Perfect New World, or the aforementioned Warhammer MMORPG could become surprise hits.
What do you think about the state of the genre? Were WoW and especially the WoW killers a big problem? And are you more optimistic or skeptical about the future.
For more on all new MMORPGs in development, you can find here: All 59 MMORPGs currently in development for PC.
