Is the MMO genre dead? It might seem like a weird question to ask, considering World of Warcraft is still releasing expansions and there are millions players scattered throughout games like Destiny 2, Fallout 76, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, The Elder Scrolls Online and more. However, with Amazon Games practically shutting down all of its work on MMOs, the question has to be asked.
Wccftech asked three genre veterans what can be done to save MMOs. Greg Street, Rich Vogel, and Scott Hartsman have decades of experience between them, and they don't think MMOs are necessarily going away, just that players need a new and bold name to emerge.
"I believe a large audience is waiting for the right MMORPG to emerge," said Vogel. "Consider the millions of players who have played and continue to play WOW, SWTOR, ESO, UO, EverQuest, Fallout 76, and others. The problem is that no publisher is willing to invest the money and take the risk at this time."
That money investment is a big deal, as no MMO is going to drag players away from their favourite games if it doesn't feel big-budget. "You have to commit to a lot of systems and content to make it work. There are some notable exceptions, like Warframe, which started small and grew into an MMO," said Street.
MMOs remain big over in Asia, where a lot of games launch on mobile as well as console. Hartsman believes that this could be a way to get people back into MMOs, saying: "I do agree that having some extra advantage is a strategy that'd be wise if someone's going in big like the old ways. Whether that's mobile, simultaneous global on all possible platforms, or some other big lever"