I still wonder what happened.

[TonyMontana]

Can you imagine how bad blizzards new MMO will lay waste to everything that exists in the MMO world. An MMO being made by the best of the best, no money worries, no time constraints. I hope it proves to all the other developers out there what can be done when a quality team releases a quality product. Instead of hoping to make enough off of box sales to break even you make a quality product and reap the repeat monthy fee gravy train from millions of fan.

[_C-a-e-r-i-t-h_]

Can you imagine how bad blizzards new MMO will lay waste to everything that exists in the MMO world. An MMO being made by the best of the best, no money worries, no time constraints. I hope it proves to all the other developers out there what can be done when a quality team releases a quality product. Instead of hoping to make enough off of box sales to break even you make a quality product and reap the repeat monthy fee gravy train from millions of fan.

I don't think Blizzard's new MMO is going to eclipse the success of their current one. I doubt that's even possible. But Blizzard's success has always been anomalous.

Also, please don't assume a correlation between quality and success. Team Ico is a fine example of a quality team who releases quality products, but none of their games have ever topped the charts. Team Ico doesn't have Activision's marketing division.

Or $25 Celestial Steeds.

[Ashthra]

I don't think Blizzard's new MMO is going to eclipse the success of their current one. I doubt that's even possible. But Blizzard's success has always been anomalous.

Also, please don't assume a correlation between quality and success. Team Ico is a fine example of a quality team who releases quality products, but none of their games have ever topped the charts. Team Ico doesn't have Activision's marketing division.

Or $25 Celestial Steeds.

I thought Blizzard did better marketing before they merged with Activision.

And the sparkle pony/disco lion/premium shit reeks of Activision meddling. Sure, Blizzard added paid transfers and whatnot before the merge, but the money grabs have become retardedly blatant.

.../hugs her disco lion

I know, I'm a shill. But damn it, it's cuddly looking.

Insofar as Tanaka's vision, I'm sure FFXIV would have done significantly better (not like it could've done worse) if he'd actually been given the time to get it done, but the ideas themselves seem silly and counter-intuitive. Tossing out accepted MMO paradigms in the name of making them better/more innovative is one thing, but doing something different just for the sake of it is a poor idea, any way you slice it. Maybe there were reasons behind the differences, but we'll never know now, I guess.

[TonyMontana]

I don't think Blizzard's new MMO is going to eclipse the success of their current one. I doubt that's even possible. But Blizzard's success has always been anomalous.

Also, please don't assume a correlation between quality and success. Team Ico is a fine example of a quality team who releases quality products, but none of their games have ever topped the charts. Team Ico doesn't have Activision's marketing division.

Or $25 Celestial Steeds.

Quality/Money/All the time in the world/Huge HUGE brand loyalty/Amazing track record of success/Best Marketing team in the MMO business. I will eat my hat if it doesnt sell 5 million in the first month and top 10 million in the first year alone.

[_C-a-e-r-i-t-h_]

Quality/Money/All the time in the world/Huge HUGE brand loyalty/Amazing track record of success/Best Marketing team in the MMO business. I will eat my hat if it doesnt sell 5 million in the first month and top 10 million in the first year alone.

I highlighted the important part. It's pretty much guaranteed to get 10 million, but that's not really "blowing anything away" so much as it is "repeating WoW success."

In any market, you have the 800-pound gorilla and the also-rans. The gorilla doesn't need quality, though it's nice when it's there. The also-rans, one bad game and they die. Team Ico, Atlus, Clover Studios, no matter how good their games are they'll never sell even half of what a gorilla does on a bad game. Persona 4 sold, what, half a million tops? Duke Nukem Forever meanwhile tops the charts.

I think the most interesting thing in the future of Blizzard-dominated MMORPGs is Torchlight. It's being made by Blizzard North aka Runic Games, so it's a quality product from a quality team, and who knows how to "kill" Blizzard better than the guys who helped build it?