| Making a sequel to a successful MMO was the stupidest idea ever floated in the genre, and SOE paid for it. The whole point of an MMO is that you continually update it for a monthly fee; the whole point of a sequel is you abandon the original to improve upon it. They're completely contradictory, you only make an MMO sequel if you're willing to pull the plug on the original.
SOE would have made many millions if they'd actually made an EQ2 sequel; i.e. a new client/infrastructure for the same base game, heavily revamping to improve graphics/sound/gameplay; they could have cashed in on all their old content with a new audience. Instead they split their development time and now have two mediocre games with average subscriber bases, the crowning achievements of their mausoleum of zombie MMOs. At least they provided a lesson learned for the rest of the industry; WoW2 will never exist, in all likelihood a Starcraft MMO is being made instead.
The DC MMO will be their next big thing and a lot of us consider it SOE's chance to prove they've learned something. |