What does Spellborn still need for a successful US/UK launch?

by Shawn Schuster Jan 5th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Business models, Game mechanics, MMO industry, The Chronicles of Spellborn, Free-to-play

Here we are a month after the European launch of The Chronicles of Spellborn, and we find ourselves gearing up for the US and UK launches very soon. What has changed since the EU launch and what have the developers learned throughout the month after launch? MMORPG.com's Patrick S. Marshall takes a look and gives us his opinions on what the game still needs to make it in this hard-knock era for start-up MMOs.

"The bottom line is that the game could use some more players, especially on the international servers, which are considerably less populated than the French or German servers," Marshall says in the article. "The UK is separated from Europe publisher-wise by a territorial IP-ban (Acclaim is publishing TCoS in the US and the UK - Frogster does the rest of Europe and Asia)." For more information on The Chronicles of Spellborn and their upcoming US/UK launch, check out their main website.

Tags: acclaim, frogster, launch, mmorpg.com, spellborn, the-chronicles-of-spellborn, uk, us

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Anonymous said on 6:31PM 1-05-2009

@The person that wrote this article:

The UK is in Europe, btw.

Anonymous said on 6:32PM 1-05-2009

Nevermind, i read the whole article and not just the title, i never knew that UK was seperated by IP bans...heh. That's new.

double9s said on 8:41PM 1-05-2009

I tried the game and couldn't get past the performance. I don't have anything close to a high end rig, but I heard that one of the features of the game was that it ran well on a range of machines. It ran the same at a wide range of settings too, so I don't really know what to make of it. It's too bad because I really dig the art style. I'll give it a try every now and then and see if things run better.

Don't let my experience keep you from trying the game though, it might run smooth as silk on your machine.

Caldruid said on 9:53PM 1-05-2009

Strange, because TCoS runs perfectly well for me (and I'm playing the trial on a Euro server from North America). As the article stated the game on the english servers is rather barren. It's bizarre. I hope the North American audience shows up for this game because TCoS's art direction is gorgeous (yes I said gorgeous) and while the game design is not entirely original, TCoS is compelling in my opinion. Acclaim needs to get the marketing in gear for TCoS because no one I talk to seems to know what it is. TCoS deserves a chance to be successful.

double9s said on 12:28AM 1-06-2009

See I think the game design does have some serious originality. The idea of separating armor and weapons from stat bonuses is huge. Not only do I love the idea of choosing gear based on how it looks rather how much better it makes me (that's left to sigils), but it has social ramifications too. In theory there's no more arguing over drops (though you could argue that you'll just be fighting over sigils instead of gear). Also, I haven't fully wrapped my head around the rotating skill bar yet, but I imagine there's some interesting strategy there.

On a side note, the jumping animation is awful. Another game with a laughably "plastic" jump that just feels wrong. WoW, TR, and AoC are the only MMOs I can think of where jumping really feels satisfying. It's minor, I know, but it can really kill the "coolness" feeling of your character.

Rollins said on 11:37PM 1-05-2009

They already blew it by splitting the community between their servers and Acclaim's.

Also, claiming that the Acclaim beta would start on the 5th when it still hasn't started was a bad move.

This one's already dead in the water.

It's a shame, too, because the beta was promising. Unfortunately, by the time they get things straightened out, no one will care.