Will 2009 be the best year ever for MMOs?

by Brooke Pilley Mar 8th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: MMO industry, New titles, Opinion

Tipa is wondering if the upcoming 2009 MMO titles will make this year the best yet for MMOs. EVE Online will be receiving its highly anticipated Apocrypha expansion pleasing the "impact PvP" crowd. Free Realms will soon launch to the delight of families around the world, providing another option in the "kid friendly" category. Champions Online will be zipping up its latex suit to compete in the superhero sub-genre. Cryptic has another potential hit on their hands with Star Trek Online, which may ride the hype wave generated by the blockbuster film coming out this summer.

And those are just the big titles we're pretty certain are releasing in 2009. There could be even more (Darkfall Online is already out and doing fairly well)! Many people thought 2008 would be the best year for MMOs but the new titles fell somewhat short of expectations. Pirates of the Burning Sea never really left port and while Warhammer Online and Age of Conan sold nearly 1M copies each, their subscription retention rate was quite dismal. It seems expansions were the biggest winners last year with Wrath of the Lich King for WoW and the Mines of Moria for LotRO.

Tags: age-of-conan, apocrypha, champions-online, darkfall-online, eve-online, free-realms, lord-of-the-rings-online, mines-of-moria, pirates-of-the-burning-sea, star-trek-online, tipa, warhammer-online, world-of-warcraft, wrath-of-the-lich-king

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)

phobic99 said on 5:55PM 3-08-2009

I've pretty much stopped getting my hopes up for MMOs to come these days. They're usually hyped way too much and by the time they come out, I feel like "Meh". If I assume all these new MMOs will suck, then I can surprise myself (or trick my brain) into think they are better than they really are.

Err... or something.

Jumpgate is pretty much off the list now after reading the recent dev chat. I'm slightly interested in SW:TOR but again, not getting my hopes up.

KingKaio said on 6:19PM 3-08-2009

We need a cool MMOs for PS3. DC universe is wont cut it.

Abriael said on 7:16PM 3-08-2009

Honestly i don't see much of interest coming out in 2009... everything seems more of the same soup, just with less content due to being new. Technology isn't making any big jumps lately, so even graphical innovation is loosing it's sense of wonder it had in the past years.
I will probably try most of the MMOs that come out this year, but i'm not holding my breath for them.
In the end the only things that interest me enough to bother discussing them are expansions/new content/features incoming for existing MMOs, like the ambulation expansion for EvE (I'm almost totally uninterested in Apocripha, find it pretty bland), and the Tomb king expansions and possibly new capitals in warhammer.
Darkfall took no more than a few days to sorely disappoint me, champion online is completely under my radar. The star trek universe doesn't interest me in the least, and god forbid me mixing with the ultra-casual crowd in free realms. Paint me uninterested.

Nadril said on 7:42PM 3-08-2009

The one thing that holds me interested is the promise of MMOs that are breaking the EQ model.

Jumpgate:Evolution looks like a lot of fun and a lot more action oriented than EVE.

Earthrise seems like it is shaping up to be a very promising sandbox game, with some good PvP.

Mortal Online looks like what darkfall should have been, and I think is expecting a 2009 release date.

In addition to all of this we do have the possibility of some MMOs of 07/08 cleaning up their act.

I do think some people are never going to be happy with the MMORPG market though. They always set themselves up for failure. I also think some people are too stubborn to try anything knew, and seem to be stuck in the mentality that all MMORPGs should be more like a 10 year old game, ignoring all that has happened over the years.

I have some hopes for this year though, and we'll see where it takes us.

Holgar said on 7:48PM 3-08-2009

Don't get too excited about Darkfall it is still in its "honeymoon" period.

Like it says in the article we saw much the same thing with WAR and AoC, big numbers at the release dropping very fast because people get bored.

I know I'm sick of WAR already, first two weeks back were great, public quests still suck, did lots of RvR didn't see many bugs, third week was ok, did lots of RvR didn't see many bugs, fourth week was boring did lots of RvR didn't see too many bugs, after one month I'm done with the game, not even tomb kings and slayers can get me reinterested.

Wjowski said on 8:01PM 3-08-2009

Not while MMO developers continue to release bug-ridden, unplayable trash and expect us to pay for it.

Amana said on 11:41PM 3-08-2009

@Wjowski:
You know what? In those few short words, you summed it up 110% for me. That's about it exactly.

This is why publishers see large purchase numbers but an even larger drop-off rate in subs.

Hopefully all of the short-sighted, greedy, senior execs will eventually learn their lesson.. although I doubt it as they generally bail after making their targets (which are generally only based upon initial box sales), leaving the rest of the company to try and survive post-launch.

It constantly amazes me that it only takes one or two people within an organisation to completely fark it up. Strange world we live in.

WoW and Lotro seem to have risen to the top in terms of quality and content. Good on them for keeping these two components fairly in their sights.

UltimateQ said on 3:17AM 3-09-2009

I usually consider you somewhat of a troll. But your right. The trend of buggy, premature games has been a huge detriment to the market.

derella said on 8:36PM 3-08-2009

I plan to play Champions, but I'm afraid it wont keep me hooked for long.

The only game I'm really looking forward to is SWTOR, though it seem unlikely that we'll see it until well into 2010.

Punkrockdiva81 said on 2:19AM 3-09-2009

I'm not excited for anything in 2009. Sadly MMO's these days just aren't any good. They're dumbed down, rushed, and not one of them has a clue in what the playerbase likes in a game. The end result is a bunch of games that are overhyped and lose a huge portion of their subscribers within 4 months.

Both Champions and DCUO look extremely dumbed down, they look like they could be fun the first time you do the quests, but it don't look like there will be much replay value to it. STO looks like it's going to be a joke, they should just drop the MMO from the title and just make it a singleplayer game, it would likely sell better marketed as a singleplayer RPG like Mass Effect. Fallen Earth looks and plays like Tabula Rasa. I don't know much about Jumpgate, so it could be a sleeper, but I won't get my hopes up.

Only game that is even on my radar at the moment is SWTOR and that probably won't be out til 2010/2011. But even that game is starting to sound like it could be another dumbed down game.

Vandell said on 5:12AM 3-09-2009

So, what, is WoW just chopped liver??

Slacker said on 9:32AM 3-09-2009

2009 best year ever? Heck I'd be happy if it was a average year. 2008 was a huge disappointment and I see little hope for 2009.

Everything is PvP and/or made super simple so they can sell it to console users.

Joy. I can play with grifer 12 year olds on a PvP server. Or just plain 12 year olds on a console game. Sigh.

Looks like another year of WoW being the only decent PvE MMO.

Come one Champions prove me wrong!

THAC0 said on 10:02AM 3-09-2009

I'm not interested in just about anything coming out in 2009 at all. 2008 was such a disappointing year that it really took the wind out of my sails as far as being excited about MMOs anymore. I'm on the verge of throwing in the towel on MMOs they are too simple, uninteresting, buggy, half-finished, rehashes of whats come before. The MMO market needs to find a new paradigm.

Spenser said on 11:17AM 3-09-2009

Will the subscription model still be appealing to the masses in the 'downward' economy? Something to maybe consider for those that have multiple subscriptions. Might be a good year for the most popular one or two mmos for people who want to consolidate their spending I suppose.

Fess said on 11:51AM 3-09-2009

Considering I've canceled all my current MMO subscriptions and for now sworn off the genre totally until someone...anyone...comes out with something genuinely unique, interesting and at least moderately feature-complete at launch...I don't think 2009 will be a swell MMO year for me.

I'm sick of shelling out cash monthly, just to be annoyed and frustrated by half-ass products.

Aaron said on 1:39PM 3-09-2009

the comment about shotty programing...
For the most part nowaday's, many MMO are close and open beta tested. Some I've seen have been rushed through, but for the most part it does generate some interest and leads to smoother gameplay. The only reason a game would be buggy on release would be because beta-testers didn't do the job or beta was rushed.

You cant realy blame the companies for being greedy, capitalism runs the world(far as I remeber) and all it ever boils down to is the bottom line...

JP said on 3:26PM 3-09-2009

Nope. 2009 and beyond won't see a better time for the genre until the player base can stop with the childish sense of entitlement and lower their expectations.

the only thing holding back the genre, is us.

It's one thing to not like a game, it's another to make fun of the developers and other players, and basically belittle (and lie while doing it) anyone that does enjoy it.

The rampant cynisisim and disrespect that's become the "norm" in comments and from forumites in 2008 have made it all but impossible for any game to truely succeed.

THAC0 said on 4:44PM 3-09-2009

I don't think that expecting the same quality product that you woudl expect from a single player game that you pay the same amount of money for is childish. I call that wise.

MMO publishers are selling sub par product compared to other genres of games and on top of that just filling them is meaningless repetitive time sinks to get more subscription money out of players.

let me translate a part of your statement that i think you don't understand....

"The rampant cynisisim and disrespect that's become the "norm" in comments and from forumites in 2008 have made it all but impossible for any game to truely succeed."

Gamers don't like the games so the games don't succeed. The games will succeed when the players enjoy them.... It sounds to me like we need better products and ideas in the market place for MMOs to succeed!

JP said on 4:58PM 3-09-2009

Oh, I agree. We need better games.

I do understand, but you're right: "Gamers don't like the games so the games don't succeed. The games will succeed when the players enjoy them"

My point is the attitude, lack of respect, cynical forums posts and general propaganda that's spread around AFTER the decide they don't like it (much more in this genre then any single player or console one) will further the less-then-steller releases. It spreads so rampant, that players who DO enjoy the title are threatened and belittled.

NOT playing, paying or buying is an excellent way to show developers you're not interested. Its the above-and-beyond negativeity and hatred that people feed on afterwards that's causing the downturn IMO.