Flop 2: There are no big new western MMORPGs anymore – except for one and you hear nothing about it
For MMORPG players who regularly follow the genre, it’s reality. Some are even pleased about it, for others it’s a major disappointment: No major MMORPGs are coming in the West anymore.
While in the past someone was always working on something, turning Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or The Elder Scrolls into an MMORPG with a high budget, there’s none of that today. Too much money has been burned in recent years, too little success achieved by the companies.
No single “big” western MMORPG will be released in 2015. Also in 2016, the kitchen will remain cold. When MMO sites make a list of “new releases for MMOs in 2016”, they get mocked: Those aren’t MMOs, they say. Or “You already had those in 2015; they won’t be released anyway.”
The sober reality is: The only AAA MMORPG that the West is developing, is Everquest Next. And about the heavily announced title EQNext, there was practically nothing heard in 2015. The studio had difficulties elsewhere – even the fate of former president John Smedley would be worth landing on this flop list here. The development process for EQNext involves working a long time on the basics without being able to show anything; for that, it should go quickly in the end.
There’s a positive side to this development in the MMORPG genre: There’s now more space for niche MMORPGs without huge budgets, without state-of-the-art graphics, full voice acting and all the frills. Funded through crowdfunding and developed by veterans, they could provide impulses for the ailing western MMORPG genre. If it doesn’t come from the big studios – then maybe from games like Crowfall or Camelot Unchained.
For players who are asking: What’s next? Who’s doing what? Who’s making my WoW with graphics from 2015 instead of 2005 – are currently met with disappointment.
And at number 1, an old acquaintance …
