2014 - The last big theme-park mmo launch hype, those days won't return

[Slaughty8]

2011
Star Wars The Old Republic

2012
Guild Wars 2

In 2014 we had 2 big MMO releases:
The Elder Scrolls Online
Wildstar

I bet many of you remember this specific nice feeling of hype mixed with "something big is being launched", a new online adventure shared with hundreads of thousands other players was about to begin. I honestly miss that. Such days won't come back, as there are no big theme-park mmo's in development.
Feels like the end of an era.

WoW's expansion launch doesn't give this feeling.
Launch of the upcoming niche mmo's like:
- Albion Online
- Crowfall
- Camelot Unchained
- Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
- Revival
- Chronicles of Elyria
also won't give this feeling, at last for me, I don't feel hype for those.

Some are hyped for the Star Citizen, well...let's be serious, development of it will take another 2 to 4 years, if not 6.
No Man's Sky? Hype for it died a little because of another release date change. We should be playing it right now...but we are not.

Damn.

[Raidosounds]

2011
Star Wars The Old Republic

2012
Guild Wars 2

In 2014 we had 2 big MMO launches:
The Elder Scrolls Online
Wildstar

I bet many of you remember this specific nice feeling of hype mixed with "something big is being launched", a new online adventure shared with hundreads of thousands other players was about to begin. I honestly miss that. Such days won't come back, as there are no big theme-park mmo's in development.
Feels like the end of an era.

WoW's expansion launch doesn't give this feeling.
Launch of the upcoming niche mmo's like:
- Albion Online
- Crowfall
- Camelot Unchained
- Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
- Revival
- Chronicles of Elyria
also won't give this feeling, at last for me, I don't feel hype for those.

Damn.

As much as I love them, MMO genre either needs a HUGE overhaul or it's just going to die off.

[Eleccybubb]

2015 also had FF14 Heavensward if you wanna count expansions. Was pretty hyped for that personally just didn't have the time to play it alongside WoW. Also FF14 2.0 relaunched to a positive reception in 2013.

[Slaughty8]

As much as I love them, MMO genre either needs a HUGE overhaul or it's just going to die off.

Yeah, I agree. It will probably take at least 4 years. And we know that those listed niche mmo's are not overhauling anything, these are just focusing on specific areas of the theme-park ones and expand the possibilities of the said areas, nothing else.

[Calfredd]

VR could mix things up for MMOs (even if it just becomes a niche thing) but those first VR MMOs are probably going to suck.

[Eleccybubb]

VR could mix things up for MMOs (even if it just becomes a niche thing) but those first VR MMOs are probably going to suck.

I really don't think VR is as big as people are making it out to be personally. Had a go with the Oculus and the HTC Vive and honestly it isn't really anything groundbreaking or special.

[Slaughty8]

VR could mix things up for MMOs (even if it just becomes a niche thing) but those first VR MMOs are probably going to suck.

I agree. In 4 to 10 years VR can become much more mainstream, so making someting like "WoW 2.0 VR adventure" could be possible. But again, development of a huge mmo takes 6 to 10 years. I remember Blizzard said "we’re interested, and we’re watching", srouces: http://www.vrfocus.com/2016/02/blizz...were-watching/ http://www.androidauthority.com/bliz...-no-vr-673223/ - links updated.

But again, not many people are into VR because of many reasons. VR could be a "wii fit" situation.

I think VR has more potential usage in education (showing kids Europe or Mars, Reef), business, theme parks etc. VR Rollercoaster, scary houses or shooting/explorer rooms, fun.

[Calfredd]

I really don't think VR is as big as people are making it out to be personally. Had a go with the Oculus and the HTC Vive and honestly it isn't really anything groundbreaking or special.

A lot of MMOs out right now aren't exact WoW, and by extension, EQ, clones and they are doing fine but also not groundbreaking otherwise more people would emulate those types of MMOs, the same will probably happen with VR. You will get a few VRMMOs but it won't create 50 different clones.

[D3athsting]

VR could mix things up for MMOs (even if it just becomes a niche thing) but those first VR MMOs are probably going to suck.

I don't think you can afford a 4+ hrs gaming session on the rift without going insane, ppl are enjoying rift for racing games and other fast paced genres (overwatch?), honestly i don't see a 3rd person mmorpg working well with VR (and i just hate 1st person mmorpgs), also many mmo players use crappy old machines and VR hw requirements are quite high for now

[Raidosounds]

Hehe people want the Sword Art Online experience, I agree with an above comment saying that I really doubt VR is going to really become the go-to experience for video games.

[Calfredd]

I don't think you can afford a 4+ hrs gaming session on the rift without going insane, ppl are enjoying rift for racing games and other fast paced genres (overwatch?), honestly i don't see a 3rd person mmorpg working well with VR (and i just hate 1st person mmorpgs), also many mmo players use crappy old machines and VR hw requirements are quite high for now

This is true but not even computers had a consumer-friendly cost at first but computers can hardly be called a niche. I can also agree that more fast-paced games will be more popular on a VR platform.

[Fleckens]

Blade and soul launch this january definitely gave me that feeling of a new mmo, although it did unfortunately quite quickly pass, and while i still think the game has potential, it was completely wasted by an incompetent publisher.

I am quite looking forward to legion launch. It was satisfy that hunger for exploring a new mmo world but at least it will be fun to tryhard for the first few weeks, and hopefully it can live up to the promises of future content.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

Some are hyped for the Star Citizen, well...let's be serious, development of it will take another 2 to 4 years, if not 6.

It's actually on track for launch within the next two and a half years, but unlike the other MMOs it's not going to have a launch anywhere near the size of previous themepark MMOs (and to think it would is an unrealistic expectation).

[Post]

I was never one of those people who got hyped for the new shiny MMO, they all looked too samey for me. I'll get hyped when something really different happens.

[Zephyr Storm]

I think the era of large scale MMO's is over. At least for now. Smaller scale MMO-type and MMO-lite games seem to be taking their place. Things like Destiny, The Division, etc, etc. And honestly I don't think that's a bad thing (even though some are basically failures like The Division, the idea and concept is still good).

[Auxora]

The main problem being it's a massive investment to make a competitive mmo with wow. Blizz has said before they don't worry because it would be a $100M+ for a competitor. When wow was rolling in the $15/mo. subs so there were other companies willing to take that investment risk. EA did it with SWOTR and poured bucketloads of money into it, and it's sales were pretty disappointing and went to f2p before long. And that was closer to the big mmo days. Now, with mmos declining for a few years now, wow numbers way down, and after the bath EA took on swotr, there just aren't companies out there willing to risk it. About the closest have been the large fps-rpg AAA titles like The Division. The Division was about $50M to dev, but that was for 3 platforms, and the biggest game Ubi has ever done. Still a long way from a $100M+ new wow-competitor mmo.

[Taeldorian]

Hehe people want the Sword Art Online experience, I agree with an above comment saying that I really doubt VR is going to really become the go-to experience for video games.

Who wouldn't want that experience aside from the dying? Either way I doubt it'll happen anytime soon or in the near future.

[Kuthe]

It went from RTS, to MMOs/FPS to Mobas/f2p games. The genre has just outlived its lifecycle. Sure there are 7~ mill players who are holding onto WoW, and however many million that will revisit it when a new expansion comes out (myself included) but in the grand scheme of things, the genre is just going to continue to die as the MMOs players get older/have less time, and the newer generations either aren't interested in the type of time dedication needed for an MMO, or don't want to pay $60~ for a game + whatever expansions it has, plus $15 a month.
The most recent iterations of 'mmos' in the expanding of the genre are Destiny and The Division, both which are arguable good/bad depending on players and what they want from a game.

[Morae]

MMO's need some refreshing. After success of wow everyone wanted their piece of it. Somehow I just haven't seen or tried a mmo that would just work as well as wow did. Something about them was always wrong...badly.

[Deletedaccount1]

People stopped caring about immersion in games or something. I think that is why MMOs died off.