Take-Two: MMOs Don't Work in the U.S.

[Andy Chalk]

Take-Two: MMOs Don't Work in the U.S.

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick says his company is actively investing in MMOs, but not in North America.

Bobby Kotick, President and CEO of World of Warcraft parent Activision Blizzard, probably thinks MMOs are the greatest thing ever. John Riccitiello, whose experience with Star Wars: The Old Republic went a long toward costing him his job at the top of Electronic Arts, likely has a different feeling about them. But they've both made a point of professing their belief that MMOs are a potentially huge market and source of revenues. Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick is rather less committed to that view, however, telling an audience at the Cowen Technology, Media and Telecom Conference that the current state of the genre is proof that MMOs just don't fly in North America.

"We're actively investing in online MMOs; we're not doing it in the U.S. Why? Because MMOs don't work here," he said. "A couple of our competitors have found out that through very, very expensive lessons - one of our competitors just recently announced they're restarting [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/124406-Blizzard-Restarts-Titan-Project-Wont-See-Release-Until-2016] an MMO project in the U.S. We look at it and say, 'How many MMOs have ever been successful in the US?' Two. World of Warcraft and EverQuest. That's kind of a bad slugging percentage."

North America might be a bust but MMOs are big business in Asia, which is where Take-Two is placing its bet. It's hooked up with Chinese gaming company Tencent to make NBA 2K Online and is also working on a Civilization-based MMO for the region.

Source: GameSpot [http://www.gamespot.com/news/take-two-mmos-dont-work-in-the-us-6409047]


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[Chimichanga]

This is just pure stupidity -- By his logic, First Person Shooters don't do too well here either, being that only a small percentage of FPS games like CoD or Halo dominate the shooter markets while millions of other knock-offs flop or go unnoticed every year.

MMOs work in the US as they do everywhere else, it's just that they're all trying to be like WoW and Everquest. Stop over-saturating the market with turn-based tolkien-esque fantasy MMOs and maybe we'll pay it attention.

Also, Asia itself is a special case. they REALLY like MMOs for some reason. I mean, does anywhere else compare with Asia in the size of it's MMO playerbase? It's like saying one man is diminutive because the other is a fucking T-rex.

 

[cidbahamut]

What, no love for FFXI? It wasn't huge, but it was impossible to kill that damn game and it's still kicking over a decade later.

Also what the other guy said. There's just a huge glut of them on the market which ends up splintering the potential market base. Plus a lot of them are terrible.

 

[XMark]

More like MMOs that aren't World of Warcraft don't work in the US, because everyone's already playing World of Warcraft.

 

[Atary77]

Everquest? Really? That may have been true a decade ago but I honestly don't know anyone the successful MMO's in my mind are WoW, EVE, Rift, and Guild Wars 1 & 2.

 

[Micah Weil]

...back in my day, we had Ultima Online, and goddammit, we were happy!

 

[Colt47]

This guy doesn't have enough knowledge to make a definitive call on that one. There are still games like MapleStory that just refuse to die and are actually fairly successful even if they aren't AAA developed material. Also, if people just blindly follow other peoples success, how can they expect to be successful? They're basically picking up the pieces left over after a grain harvester just rolled through.

 

[MorganL4]

Do the Chinese and South Koreans give a damn about the NBA? I honestly don't know, but I have never heard of basketball being that big over there.

Also, it is not that it doesn't work, its just a market over-saturation. And the whole $15 monthly fee thing is basically dead at this point.

 

[Absolutionis]

Guild Wars 2 is happily standing there being successful. It has sold more than most newer MMOs, and several months in it's still growing.

Hell, Even EVE Online is doing rather well with an irrelevant spinoff and a steady userbase.

The problem arises when people equate "MMO" with WoW-clone. WoW was just an enhanced version of Everquest, and it took the title of MMO king. Most MMOs since have either been along the same formula with a gimmick (DAoC/WAR with WvW, TOR with pewpew).

 

[geizr]

Has it __EVER__ occurred to any of these CEOs that making a decent game instead of a shitty cash-grab game is the real operating principle? MMOs DO work quite well here in America; they just simply have to not suck. Also, you can't go around expecting every single MMO that comes out to be World of Warcraft. That's just not going to happen because the market is only just so big, and people have only just so much time in their lives to sink into an MMO. You have to gauge your expectations to be more in line with reality (an area in which game publishers have been showing complete incompetence). But, if the game is decent, fun, doesn't try to shit on the gamer with nefarious business practices, and the developers are responsive in dealing with the issues (bug fixes, content patches, cheaters, botters, spammers, etc.) such to ensure a quality gaming experience, you will find that an MMO can work quite well in America. However, if you think you can just throw some shit together, kick it out the door, invest minimal effort in supporting it, and still have it instantly become the next WoW (which is now finally starting to show its age, by the way), you're in for a nasty reality-check.

 

[Omnicrom]

What really? Rift, Guild Wars 2, City of Heroes (RIP), FFXI, EVE Online, UO, Maple Story, and others who turned a profit weren't "Successful"? What is your measure of success CEO of Take-Two that is not "Consistent player base and good profits"? If you're interested in doing WoW-level Business I'm afraid that you aren't going to get that anywhere, the confluence of factors that made WoW so "WoWwing" as a game were a one-time thing. You are never going to get that combination of an already invested playerbase, a level polish and accessibility that surpasses all previous games of the genre, and a lack of serious competition. WoW is an anomaly, if you're comparing yourself to WoW then you're just as stupid as every Modern Military Shooter that is disappointed when they aren't CoD or Bamco being disappointed Tales of doesn't have Final Fantasy's sales figures.

 

[Akisa]

It's not that MMOs don't "work" here, it's that there are already too many of them.

More like lets make mods of WoW (aka clones) with just different scenery when it's already a terrible system.

 

[Croquemitaine]

What he's basically saying is: Developing a successful MMO in North America takes time, money, creativity, and no small amount of risk. Meanwhile, we can go to Asia, slap together a derivative grindfest from a generic MMO template, and make good margins off a tiny investment.

 

[Parakeettheprawn]

It's not that MMOs don't "work" here, it's that there are already too many of them.

Exactly. When you've already got niche MMOs that found certain audiences (like DDO, Warframe, Vindictus, etc.), even smaller target audiences are unlikely.

 

[Phrozenflame500]

More like MMOs that aren't World of Warcraft don't work in the US, because everyone's already playing World of Warcraft.

This. The WoW demographic is already dominated by, who would have thought it, WoW. Guild Wars 2 managed to wrest a bit of a place for itself, but mostly WoW's got the complete monopoly. I would love to play a non-WoW MMO, but sadly the only one I've seen is EVE, and it's subscription based (which is a deal-breaker for me)

 

[Kyrdra]

It's not that MMOs don't "work" here, it's that there are already too many of them.

Exactly. When you've already got niche MMOs that found certain audiences (like DDO, Warframe, Vindictus, etc.), even smaller target audiences are unlikely.

Wait Warframe counts as MMO? It is a shooter with an addition chat option but I woudnt call it MMO in the same way I dont call Battleforge MMO

 

[2clueless]

Everytime I see people mention EVE, I think, "I really should pick that up again."

Then I realize that I have a life, and EVE would rip away that life in an instant if I let it.