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Originally Posted by Gwen Rockpounder  Stuff |
Well, we remember what happened last time the notes were out. A game failed horribly and the owner of the company turned out to be a heroin addict.
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It doesn't play in the browser, it is a standalone Windows-only client for now.
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I saw that on the first page, and this could mean a variety of different things but it does mean that it doesn't play in the browser which will require an installation of some sort. If you have to buy a retail box, or download a client, anything that makes it harder to get into a game or requires more hardware; it's going to be a problem for their entry into the market. Translated: Much different than a web based browser game.
If it is simple, you still have a problem with SOE in one regard. This isn't going to be a huge profit maker, and will be lucky to break even, at least for the first couple years. As seen with other titles, SOE has a tendancy to throw things on Pet Project status (Planetside, Vanguard) and development, patches, and content additions are so slow that people lose interest quick. I do not see a lot of people behind this 6 months post launch, which leads me to believe less content. Although it could work in their favor as well - it doesn't take 4 developers to make a bunch of haircut graphics.
In the end, it will be another gimic game to throw in for mass effect to continue justification for the all access pass. (You can be sure they will add it - it would be ridiculous not too)
Edit: You could almost say this is a US version of Maple Story with a lot more features and a 3D graphics engine. But this shows where I am coming from.
Korea since 2002, 200 thousand subscribers (concurrent users), 14 million subscribers (total)
Japan since November 2003, 9 million subscribers
China since December 2004, 25 million subscribers
Taiwan since July 2005, 3.5 million subscribers
Thailand since August 2005, 550 thousand subscribers
South East Asia (mostly Singapore and Malaysia) since June 2005, 550 thousand subscribers
North America (Global) since May 2005, 3.5 million subscribers
The Asain market accounts for over 80% of the people playing it. They also have a DS version coming because they realize the value.
Hence why I think this would be a poor market in the US. They should have targeted a portable system, or if they wanted to stick PC based, test marketed it over in the Asian market first to realize a better profit scheme.
