EA licenses Dungeon Keeper MMO, for China

by Kyle Horner Dec 1st 2008 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, New titles, News items, MMORTS

"So I've got a great idea!" says executive Bob at Electronic Arts, "Lets license out the Dungeon Keeper property for an MMORPG!" John, who happens to be a puppet on Bob's hand, says, "That's a brilliant idea, old chap!" The apparently British imaginary friend makes an awkward smile. Bob continues, "We'll give it to a Chinese developer who can release it all over the Asian markets." John the British puppet responds, "Wonderful, will you bring it to Western markets?" Bob replies with, "Who cares?" and they both laugh -- at least in Bob's twisted mind.

This is honestly the only sequence of events that, in our minds, makes sense when considering the fact that Electronic Arts has licensed out the Dungeon Keeper property as an MMO to Chinese-based developer NetDragon Websoft with the intent to eventually bring it overseas. While we're sure it'll do fine in the eastern markets, it just baffles the mind to think that EA is taking an RTS title originally designed for the west -- the original game was steeped in British humor -- and having an eastern developer create an MMO out of it that will more than likely appeal primarily to easterners only.

Tags: breaking, china, chinese, dungeon-keeper, dungeon-keeper-mmo, ea, electronic-arts, netdragon, netdragon-websoft

Related From Massively

The Daily Grind: What IP do you want to see as an MMO?
3 days ago
What makes a good MMO?
19 days ago
A bird's-eye view of China's MMO market
24 days ago

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Wjowski said on 1:32PM 12-01-2008

EA's getting ready to drop a big steaming turd you say? What else is new?

Crode said on 1:33PM 12-01-2008

Oh no! It is for sure the death of one of my favorite games of all time.

torak said on 2:08PM 12-01-2008

Weird

Celestro said on 11:21PM 12-01-2008

This has "Epic Fail" written all over it. Some people just don't get it, though, I guess.

Seeker said on 2:58AM 12-02-2008

What will we lvl up by hitting punching bags and never see sunlight our entire lives?

ScytheNoire said on 8:37AM 12-02-2008

Ugh, what a shame. A great game title will get crapped all over now. They are destroying a great franchise name that could of still had a lot of value. Dungeon Keeper was great.

There's another title they own, from those Bullfrog days, that I want to see as an MMO, preferably done by a more competent company like a merger of Relic and CCP: Syndicate.

Syndicate screams to be turned into an MMORTSRPG, with you having control of a squad of four, Risk-style world map, companies and corporations, fighting for resources on RTS instanced maps.

I've actually had the game planned in my head for years. I'm weird.