News Warhammer 40K MMO cancelled by THQ

It's a problem of divided playerbase, the organization and balance of the two compared to each other would be a nightmare. Make them two totally separate experiences and you've effectively cut your number of players for either game in half. Numbers like 1 million players sounds nice as a total, but it's critical to make sure these 1 million players are organized in decently populated servers to make it enjoyable. Make them interact with each other and you're struggling to maintain balance, particularly in a Warhammer game which would undoubtably be player versus player heavy.

Of course, the cynical side would say that it's all pointless worrying about a balance of hardcore and casual players. What THQ is actually saying is that there's far more money in casual players and they're going to sell to this market more before they lose any more money.

 

So, say $400m to make, 1m subs. That means each player is expected to fork up $400 average for break even. That seems a lot to ask even for MMO players used to paying out each month. The fact is besides WoW I doubt if many, if any, MMO's have taken this much and the pay monthly model does seem to be badly in decline. Looks like a good shout on an economic basis to me.

 

You do have to buy the game originally aswell though don't you?

 

Warhammer RULEZ although space marine was below average but the dawn of war series still rocks. Can't say I blame them for ditching the MMO idea since there's already so many of those hanging around competing for the player base. I could honestly care less about darksiders though, I picked up the first one for half price during a steam sale on the recommendations of a friend and couldn't stand the "press this button to kill the enemy" moments that seem to happen every other enemy as well as the boring plot and characters. That game made the campy story from Bayonetta feel like one of those sundance film festival winners.

 

Where do you get the $300-$500 million range? There was one unverified article where an ex employee claimed $300 million, but everybody since then seems to think that is too high to be accurate.

BioWare has said they need 500k subscribers to make a profit. So, 2 million (if they can sustain that) should be plenty. 2 million is a LOT for an MMO not named WoW.

 

No way. All reports indicate is somewhere around $200 million USD, with more for marketing on top of that. It's an expensive game but it's definitely nowhere near $500 million.