RUMOR: 360 MMO for Gold Members

[JayVe]

Someone just sent me a rumor about an upcoming massively multiplayer role-playing game for Gold members only, distributed over Xbox live Arcade. Not only is a 360 XBLA MMORPG (http://www.maxconsole.net/?mode=news&newsid=34718) a lot of strange numbers and letters crammed together, but it is also a fairly new thing for consoles.

According to the same tipster who explained Ric Flair's appearance in Skate 2, a new MMO will be coming to XBLA and should be announced this week. He provided a very small screen which could be concept art and is an ambitious project which is going to be funded by microtransactions. The french developers are reportedly in talks with MS to allow silver members to play but MS just want Gold members. Again, this is a big rumor and we can not guarantee it has any validity.

Sounds a lot like a number of the Korean MMORPGS that allow people to play for free, but allow customizations/upgrades through microtransactions.

Would anyone here be interested in such a game?

[Johan]

Would anyone here be interested in such a game?

I would. If it was subscription-free, funded through micro-transactions that were truly optional AND allowed me some element of customization regarding how that DLC affects the game I play and the character I use, I'd be very interested.

[Variable Gear]

I would. If it was subscription-free, funded through micro-transactions that were truly optional AND allowed me some element of customization regarding how that DLC affects the game I play and the character I use, I'd be very interested.
That's a lot of ifs. :o

[Aggort]

That's a lot of ifs. :o

Sadly, I fall in with everyone of those if's as well. Microtransactions are sure here to stay, but I can't stand them. Until they truly break a game, though, I won't gripe too badly.

[Alkanos]

If it was subscription-free, funded through micro-transactions that were truly optional...A lot F2P try to start out that way. It never works out, since they can't make enough money with just fluff stuff. So after a few months they add something innocuous, like XP boost items or something. (Hey they just speed things up, you still get the same advantages by leveling normally!) Soon enough, you need to buy items just to grind, and things go downhill.

[Nura]

Being an mmo-addict, i'll be all over this as soon as possible!

[drobvice]

But if it would convince enough people to switch to or keep Gold status, there could be a bit of cash in it for MS. Maybe if they have more things like this that would add value, they could, I don't know, make multiplayer available for Silver.

[Wellscha]

French you say?

By any chance, could it be this (http://www.dofus.com/en)?

[JayVe]

French you say?

By any chance, could it be this (http://www.dofus.com/en)?

Oh, I hope so. Dofus is crazy cool. C'est genial!

[Karak]

Oh, I hope so. Dofus is crazy cool. C'est genial!

Dofus is the shit. But didn't this already turn out to be wakfu.com (http://www.wakfu.com/en/introduction-mmorpg)

I would be all over Dofus or Wakfu. Great great games.

[mister slim]

Ankama is doing an XBLA title, a Dofus spin-off, called Islands of Wakfu (http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/islands-of-wakfu-for-xbla-in-09). It's a 2 player adventure/beat-em-up though.

[JayVe]

Man, I love this team's creative direction. The teams at Dofus and Wakfu are solid, interesting and different enough to stand out.

[RandoM51]

Wouldn't make much sense from Microsoft's point of view. You get people buying gold for the free MMO, but then they play that all the time instead of buying new games.

On top of that I just don't see that many people who a) won't pay for Live Gold, and b) would pay for it if there was an MMORPG attached to it. That would be a niche within a niche, wouldn't it?

[Orca]

Wouldn't make much sense from Microsoft's point of view. You get people buying gold for the free MMO, but then they play that all the time instead of buying new games.

On top of that I just don't see that many people who a) won't pay for Live Gold, and b) would pay for it if there was an MMORPG attached to it. That would be a niche within a niche, wouldn't it?

Microsoft would get the money for the Gold sub, plus likely earn a percentage of the microtransactions.

[pomeroy]

Hmm...nope. I don't really see this happening.

[RandoM51]

Microsoft would get the money for the Gold sub, plus likely earn a percentage of the microtransactions.

Sure they would, I just don't see the increased subscription rate being anything meaningful, particularly when offset by loss of sales for other games.

I just don't think there is a huge set of people out there dying to play a *FREE* MMORPG on 360 who do not already have a gold subscription.

We're not talking WoW, you know?

[Orca]

Exactly...so I really doubt there'd be a huge 'playing this at the exclusion of ALL OTHER GAMES' crowd for it. But there would be some who played it regularly, and if they think that crowd is big enough to make it a revenue stream - why not?

[Widgetcraft]

Sounds a lot like a number of the Korean MMORPGS that allow people to play for free, but allow customizations/upgrades through microtransactions.

Would anyone here be interested in such a game?

Nope, shit like this is already widely available on the PC, and I have always opted to play games that require a monthly fee rather than a lot of nickle-and-diming. This sort of thing usually screams "low-quality production."

[Krispy]

Sure they would, I just don't see the increased subscription rate being anything meaningful, particularly when offset by loss of sales for other games.

I just don't think there is a huge set of people out there dying to play a *FREE* MMORPG on 360 who do not already have a gold subscription.

We're not talking WoW, you know?

You are at ends with this analysis. First you say people will be so addicted to the MMO that they will decrease their normal spending on console games and then you say not enough people will care for it to matter. So which is it? Will Microsoft not gain money because people care too much or not gain money because people won't care enough? I need to know why Microsoft will fail.

[RandoM51]

You are at ends with this analysis. First you say people will be so addicted to the MMO that they will decrease their normal spending on console games and then you say not enough people will care for it to matter. So which is it? Will Microsoft not gain money because people care too much or not gain money because people won't care enough? I need to know why Microsoft will fail.

You're missing my point. Either a) the MMORPG is great, and highly addictive and thus worth a Gold subscription and as a great and highly addictive game one that hampers sales of other games, or b) the MMORPG is lame and few people see it as an incentive to subscribe to Gold, at least few people who don't already have a Gold subscription for multiplayer gaming.

I'm at boths ends because those are the only two possibilities I see and neither of them seem to make much sense to me from Microsoft's point of view.

Now all of this is predicated on the original post that positions the MMORPG as being a "free" aspect of Gold and not an additional fee.

What was the last great game with ongoing infrastructure costs that Microsoft gave away for free?

Lastly, this feels like a rumor started by a 360 fan(or anti-ps3 person, lol) who would like the 360 and/or Microsoft to out-Home Home, which would admittedly probably be not that hard to do. Question is, why bother?

[Deadend]

Oh, MS is already planning to out-Home Home with Mansion.

Mansion features even bigger environments! The awesome feature of not having to hear anyone be stupid! Lots of stunning empty space to stare at! Playable games like Uno! If you stand in line for it! Watch your Netflix moves on your virtual TV! Well you have to fight for the remote first!
SOOOO INNOVATIVE!

I think Home is kind of a piece of shit, and Microsoft doesn't need to do anything to counter home.

But I would be cool with the Primetime channel... existing, and party netflix, just for fun.

[mister slim]

The awesome feature of not having to hear anyone be stupid!

Didn't Sony just add this feature?

[Deadend]

Didn't Sony just add this feature?

They did, I heard it may be removed from Home in an upcoming patch.