CCP Games Cancels World of Darkness MMO

[StewShearerOld]

CCP Games Cancels World of Darkness MMO


CCP has confirmed that it's cancelling its long in-the-works MMO World of Darkness and will be laying off staff.

CCP has confirmed that it is cancelling its long in development MMO World of Darkness.The company also confirmed that it will be laying off 56 employees from the Atlanta studio that has been working on the game for close to a decade. Via press release, CEO Hilmar Petursson said the choice to end work on the game was a difficult one.

"The decision to end the World of Darkness MMO project is one of the hardest I've ever had to make. I have always loved and valued the idea of a sandbox experience set in that universe, and over the years I've watched the team passionately strive to make that possible," Petursson said in the statement. "I would like to give special thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the World of Darkness MMO a reality, especially the team members affected by this decision." The release affirmed that CCP is making efforts to reabsorb some of the affected employees into different positions within the company.

In addition to his regrets over the hardship to CCP's staff, Petursson also expressed disappointment that the company's ambitious vision for World of Darkness will never come to fruition. "I am truly sorry that we could not deliver the experience that we aspired to make," he said. "We dreamed of a game that would transport you completely into the sweeping fantasy of World of Darkness, but had to admit that our efforts were falling regretfully short."

Development began on World of Darkness back in 2006 when CCP purchased White Wolf, the makers of the World of Darkness pen and paper game. Reports over the intervening years had pegged the game as including territory control options to similar to EVE Online. Some plans also indicated that the game would give some users the ability to <a href=http://www.warcry.com/news/view/123751-CCP-Releases-Several-Updates-about-World-of-Darkness-MMO>permanently kill other player characters. This cancellation in turn, though perhaps <a href=http://www.warcry.com/news/view/130488-CCP-Lays-Off-Some-World-of-Darkness-Staffers>not unexpected, is likely to leave many prospective players disappointed.







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[Xjin]

Well I knew this was coming down the pipe for about two years. All info just dried up quickly and then nothing was really talked about. Best of luck finding a new job folks.

Can they make a single player WoD game now? Preferably a OWoD in the vain of Bloodlines.

 

[AldUK]

Well, damn. I was a little interested in this. Not enough to be closely following every new development, but interested enough that I knew I'd be trying it out eventually. We need more games in this genre, The Secret World was really interesting, but could of been done better for sure, I wish developers would take more risks with these settings.

 

[Pyrian]

Anybody remember when MMO's used to come out and then crater? Now they crater before they even come out. XD

 

[Peregrin130]

Good.

Can we have FRIGGING WALK IN STATION now please ?!

(OT: lay-offs suck)

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Maybe they can turn it into a single player game. That's pretty much what happened with Kingdoms of Amalur.

 

[tangoprime]

Maybe they can turn it into a single player game. That's pretty much what happened with Kingdoms of Amalur.

I really hope so- their tech demos looked really impressive, and I was pretty hopeful that with CCP it wouldn't be just another standard issue MMO, which even The Secret World ended up being. I'm hoping some use comes out of all the work they've put into it. I've also recently brushed the dust off of VTM:B and was in the middle of another play through. *sigh*

On another note, doesn't CCP actually OWN White Wolf or something to that effect- I wonder what's going to happen there.

 

[Shadow-Phoenix]

Maybe they can turn it into a single player game. That's pretty much what happened with Kingdoms of Amalur.

Except KOA came out as a single player first and an MMO was planned and worked on being second, the KOA game was marketed and even had Todd McFarlane behind it, the game released and was a little bit popular but in the end it just didn't sell well enough and I have that exact same vibe coming from this if the same were to happen, not enough people are interested to make this a hit or even last long enough to be a cult hit game.

Sure I'd love to see this come out as single player but I just can't see that happening logically, especially now the funds are dry and staff that made it happen visually are being laid off.

 

[Sabrestar]

Disappointing, if not surprising.

I haven't done any tabletop gaming with it in a long time, but it certainly seems like WoD in the hands of CCP/WhiteWolf has been floundering for a while now. The reboot/relaunch of the WoD turned into such a base-breaker, and now they seem to be trying to support both old and new versions, that maybe they're just stretched too thin. Maybe it's time for CCP to reevaluate just what they want the WoD to be - not just in videogames, but the whole franchise. It has seemed to me, from the outside, that they aren't quite sure what the answer to that is right now.

 

[Jumwa]

Can't say I'd have had any interest in playing a PvP, free-for-all, perma-death MMO anyhow. The setting looked cool and all, but that sort of environment just sounds stressful, not enjoyable to me.

 

[RA92]

If they can't even get a White Wolf MMO off the ground, I guess a SP game in the line of VtMB is even less likely?

 

[Vedrenne]

On another note, doesn't CCP actually OWN White Wolf or something to that effect- I wonder what's going to happen there.

Ayep, CCP bought out White Wolf in 2006. They're currently leasing out the RPG rights to Onyx Path Publishing, AFAIK.

 

[antidonkey]

I had given up hope for this thing years ago but it still makes me sad to see it become official.

 

[Therumancer]

The honest truth is that they took some serious risks with the White Wolf properties, in what is a diminishing tabletop RPG market that did not pan out. The reactions to the end of "original" World Of Darkness and the quality of the "new" versions is extremely mixed from what I've seen. I'm hardly a "White Wolf" fan, though I find some of their IPs interesting. On top of this they really dragged their feet with the game development, and never seemed to have any solid ideas for core concepts. I pretty much smelled the end when they started more frequent advancements in EVE (including a graphics overhaul), and were pushing "Dust" so heavily as their next big project, while "World Of Darkness" dropped pretty much off the radar. It doesn't surprise me that their big plans for the license is now to just lease it out (or so it seems). It got dragged down by the simple passage of time, and some bad choices overall, combined with what seemed to be a lack of vision, since the last I remember hearing is they were looking towards building games like "Minecraft" and making that kind of thing a part of "World Of Darkness Online" which after all this time seemed to me like they hadn't even finalized the core gameplay style.

That said if "Evil Within" starts a true big budget horror game renaissance, perhaps we'll see another "World Of Darkness" RPG in the vein of "Bloodlines".

 

[TheDoctor455]

Well I knew this was coming down the pipe for about two years. All info just dried up quickly and then nothing was really talked about. Best of luck finding a new job folks.

Can they make a single player WoD game now? Preferably a OWoD in the vain of Bloodlines.

Yeah... they need to get Obsidian to get back on the setting...


but this time... maybe focus on a different part of the WoD?

Like say... Wraith?

Or the mages?

 

[LordMonty]

Dear got they employerd 50+ people for ten years for nothing... how did it take them that long to figure out it wasn't working???

But more on topic damn it might have been a hell of a game if it'd been half what they wanted it to be, EVE is too spread sheet like, this could've on the other hand stolen my life... well back to Seceret World to enjoy the closest thing i've got.

 

[Xjin]

Well I knew this was coming down the pipe for about two years. All info just dried up quickly and then nothing was really talked about. Best of luck finding a new job folks.

Can they make a single player WoD game now? Preferably a OWoD in the vain of Bloodlines.

Yeah... they need to get Obsidian to get back on the setting...


but this time... maybe focus on a different part of the WoD?

Like say... Wraith?

Or the mages?

Demons or Hunters. A mage game would be messy and hard to pull off. Wrath would go over most people and run the risk of just being too damn depressing. Now if they got some wonder team on it a Wrath game would be boss in the vain of planescape torment.

Hunters would be the best bet in the long run.

 

[cerebus23]

ever played eve o and see their dev cycle? they count time in years. so yea i cansee it taking them 10 years to pull the plug.

sucks seemed like an interesting idea. and lord knows the mmo scene is hurting for quality and variety.