Scott Hartsman, CEO of Trion Worlds, commented on the current status of the MMORPG market in an interview.
Are MMORPGs dying? According to Scott Hartsman, that is not the case. One tends to compare today’s market only with that of 2004, the year World of Warcraft was released. At that time, there were only a few MMORPGs and the interest in the new genre was high. As a result, many players spread out over only a few games, leading to a very high population in these games. They were indeed “Massively” Multiplayer RPGs.
The number of players is now distributed over more and more games
However, today this looks a bit different. There are hundreds of MMORPGs that players are now spreading across. Therefore, the servers are not as full as they used to be. The number of players is now distributed over many games. However, this does not mean that the MMO market is doing poorly. On the contrary. It is actually doing very well. It just functions a bit differently today.
Hartsman also points out that player interest has changed. Of the gamers who spent sleepless nights completing raids with their friends in 2004, only a few remain 12 years later. Today, many more players engage in shorter gaming experiences, such as mobile games, MOBAs, or hero shooters. However, interest in online games is still very high. The interests have just changed. And the market needs to adapt, and companies must respond accordingly.
The market is changing
One must no longer view MMORPGs as they did 12 to 15 years ago. The market has changed, and so has player interest. For this reason, a classic MMORPG would probably have a very hard time today, as the player numbers of a World of Warcraft are unlikely to be reached at present.
Trion Worlds is currently eyeing the Chinese online games market, which is enormous. However, they prefer PvP games there, which makes it difficult to establish story-driven and PvE-oriented online games like RIFT. However, according to Scott Hartsman, one is also noticing a shift in China. There is an increasing interest in Western MMOs. Maybe the future of the genre lies in China…
