An experienced developer worked on an MMORPG after successes with the Fallout series. However, the game was only online for a few years after completion – which doesn’t surprise the developer behind it.
Which developer is it? Tim Cain has worked on some of the most famous games of all time. He was one of the creators of Fallout and also contributed to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, Pillars of Eternity, and The Outer Worlds.
The game he spent the longest working on, however, is another one. We are talking about the MMORPG WildStar, which was released in 2014. It was developed by Carbine Studios, and the publisher was NCSoft. The MMORPG impressed fans with its colorful sci-fi world, action-packed battles, and challenging raids.
Unfortunately, the game was not playable for very long. Only four years after its release, WildStar was discontinued – specifically on November 28, 2018.
By that time, Tim Cain was already no longer part of the development team. He had left the studio earlier and now looks back at the project with surprise. Cain believes he knows why WildStar failed.
Those who miss WildStar can find alternatives to the MMORPG on MeinMMO.
A (too) long development
What does Cain say? The developer recalls to PC Gamer about the time when work on WildStar began. Back in 2005, the team was very small, with only about ten people involved. They were mainly veterans who had already worked on games like World of Warcraft.
During development, the creative minds behind the project gathered numerous outlandish ideas and tested them. This prolonged the work even further.
Tim Cain worked on WildStar for a total of six years. That’s longer than any other project he was involved in. For comparison: Cain spent about three and a half years on Fallout 1. Of course, an MMORPG is a significantly larger undertaking, yet the developer believes that the long development harmed the game.
Before its completion, Cain left the company. When WildStar was released in 2014, the developer was busy with other projects and had no time to play himself. But he observed how the MMORPG was performing and how it slowly failed. Cain describes it today as follows:
They worked on it for a total of nine years when WildStar finally came out. And that alone causes problems because the games had changed. What people wanted had changed. Other competitors had come to the market and shown what was possible. You can set a goal and work towards it, but if it takes so long, the target shifts.
Tim Cain via PC Gamer
The competition had become larger and more modern. Besides WoW, games like Guild Wars 2, ESO, and Star Wars: The Old Republic were dominating the market.
According to Cain, it was evident that WildStar had been in development for a long time and could not compete with modern MMORPGs. Some features that distinguished other games were missing, which ultimately led to its demise. Did you play WildStar back then? What do you think about it? Feel free to let us know in the comments. Cain recently shared a funny anecdote: The creator of Fallout explains why beans play an important role in the wasteland
