As title, on the business side, what do you think of the future of "massive multiplayer game??" I''m talking about not just limited to MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online RPG Games)... thanks!

There will be lots more of them...across several genres, but for the near future most of them will be RPG''s, and a few will be RTS''s, but more and more genres will be tried over time...

The games will continue to cost huge amounts of money and require large teams and a lot of time...and then a significant infrastructure of servers and support staff once released...

Monthly subscription payments will likely remain the norm, averaging about $10 US/month, though I''m sure there will be experiments with MMPOG''s that are "free-with-advertising", and possibly even some "premium" games that cost as much $20-$30 US/month (luxury games? It could happen )...


DavidRM
Samu Games

I think that the market will become saturated very quickly. Right now there are really only 2: Everquest and Ultima Online. 10Six and Asherons Call haven''t been so successful. Verant is made Everquest, and they''re also working on a Star Wars, a fps called PlanetScape and a RTS called Sovereign Massively Multiplayer Game. Also, Westwood is now working on a Massively Multiplayer Game. The''s few more coming out two. The scary thing is that they all look like really good games, but there''s not enough room for all of them. Personally I think that Sovereign will do well because it''s the only rts coming, and it looks pretty cool

These day''s, majority of game have to be atleast multiplayer to be any good.

I myself am sick of playing against/with AI...
Playing with or against other human player''s seem''s to be the future, and masively online game''s will become ever more popular, especially when connections to the internet become faster and faster.

IE. Throw out that dial up modem, install Satellite, or Cable, or DSL, ADSL, and all the other new technologies coming out.

Also with computer speed increasingly ever more each day, more speed, more memory, better 3d games, faster connection''s....
There''s only one way thing''s can go... unless some moron thought he would be smart and target the key building''s which connect the "world" to the U.S... Well so it seem''s to be that way.

Anyway just blabering.

I agree that the market is going to be getting very crowded soon. I'm guessing the result of this is that the games will get more specialized and will be forced into targeting specific markets. I'm also guessing we'll see a quite a few failures as everyone rushes to get their game up and running.

Edited by - _Josh on November 13, 2000 6:03:50 PM

The only "saturation" I''m seeing in multi-player online games is in RPGs. Seems that all anyone can think of is it to create Yet Another Graphic MUD.

So, if you''re planning to create The Next Big Ultima Online Killer, you''re going to have to take a number and prepare to face a very tough market that is rapidly approaching saturation.

While I see multi-player games becoming more important in the future, I don''t think multi-player games are going to completely replace single-player games. Instead, multi-player games will become a "meta-niche", parallel to single-player games.


DavidRM
Samu Games