Bragr
Banned
When World of Warcraft came out in 2004, everyone was talking about how MMOs are gonna take over everything, how you will see massive MMOs on every console, and how every franchise will dip its toes into the genre, but that never happened.
A lot of this predicted push for MMOs seemed to stem from how much money World of Warcraft and subscriptions-based models generated and the extreme time engagement players put into the product. But the MMOs after World of Warcraft not only struggled to reproduce the same success or quality but MMO fans stuck around with World of Warcraft and no other MMO reached the same heights (in the west) and the genre didn't evolve much.
But why did publishers and developers stop chasing MMOs? was it too expensive? did they struggle to retro-fit their existing franchises into an MMO genre? was the internet demands too high for most consumers? did micro-transactions and DLC prove more lucrative? were MMOs too PC-centric? did all the mediocre free-to-play MMOs oversaturate and hurt the genre?
This is very much based on the Western market, as in Asia, MMOs are a different beast. And you could argue FFXIV might invigorate MMOs and might have pushed the genre forward recently, especially since it's popular on consoles.
A lot of this predicted push for MMOs seemed to stem from how much money World of Warcraft and subscriptions-based models generated and the extreme time engagement players put into the product. But the MMOs after World of Warcraft not only struggled to reproduce the same success or quality but MMO fans stuck around with World of Warcraft and no other MMO reached the same heights (in the west) and the genre didn't evolve much.
But why did publishers and developers stop chasing MMOs? was it too expensive? did they struggle to retro-fit their existing franchises into an MMO genre? was the internet demands too high for most consumers? did micro-transactions and DLC prove more lucrative? were MMOs too PC-centric? did all the mediocre free-to-play MMOs oversaturate and hurt the genre?
This is very much based on the Western market, as in Asia, MMOs are a different beast. And you could argue FFXIV might invigorate MMOs and might have pushed the genre forward recently, especially since it's popular on consoles.