CCP Games Cancels World of Darkness MMO

[Nghtgnt]

Hunters would be the best bet in the long run.

Perhaps. They already did 3 back in the day.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter:_The_Reckoning_(video_game)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter:_The_Reckoning:_Wayward
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter:_The_Reckoning:_Redeemer

I'd like to see them dust off the old canceled 1999 Werewolf game

 

[Ace Morologist]

My prediction for the future:

Whoever now owns the rights to the World of Darkness properties and Exalted and the Trinity universe (probably CCP itself) will shop said rights around trying to find smaller, hungrier development houses to build a moody, atmospheric single-player game that's less ambitious but truer to the source material. Whatever small house ends up with the license to make that first game will get gobbled up by a larger video game manufacturing company (EA, for instance) during development based on the quality of its alpha build, giving the eventual game a huge marketing push and lots of exposure. Sales will blossom and the copyright holders will make boo-koodles of second-hand money.

Meanwhile, the victims of this most RECENT round of layoffs--which have plagued White Wolf from the beginning and CCP since the buyout--will come out the other end of the industry machine as ground beef.

Champagne!

 

[TWEWYFan]

Man, World of Darkness video games just seem to be cursed.

 

[Rawbeard]

This should spell the end for White Wolf finally. Not that much was left of that company, but what use does CCP have for it now?

 

[BaronIveagh]

I told them when they first started talking about buying out WW that it was an idea which would end badly.


EvE Online player should be happy though as, in theory, more dev time will be spent fixing the many, many issues that have cropped up with eve since this debacle began.

 

[Elijah Newton]

Tsk. Hope all works out for those who lost their jobs. I was pulling for this one.

I'd like to see them dust off the old canceled 1999 Werewolf game

Seconded. And to those chuckling at that trailer ( gameplay footage looks even more dated* ) wouldn't it be great to see what an updated version would look like?

While I had more fun with Vampire and Mage (and of those two, Mage far and away), I think Werewolf lends itself best to videogames. If you're inclined to eyeball the MMO potential, consider the secondary xp related attributes of Glory, Honor and Wisdom, Septs as precursors to WoW guilds, etc.

Not that Vampire was a bad start, I think the premise was probably the most approachable. But half the reason I was stoked for CCP's take on Vampire was I figured it would eventually expand to allow for werewolves who (in setting) hunted vampires in cities but as such were outside their own element. We ran it as asymmetrical gameplay before that phrase meant anything to us, and it was great.


* http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VbAlf2X9xBs - built on the original Unreal engine, I think?

 

[SecondPrize]

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.

They do two expansions a year. The time in between isn't bereft of patches either.
I always though they had too much on their plate anyways, going from just EVE to EVE along with WOD and Dust 872 all at the same time. But that's probably just because I was hoping they'd do something cool with wis like making a completely optional and huge dead space type thing when you dock in certain stations.

 

[Qvar]

Very sad, I was looking forward this. But it doesn't come as unexpected. I feel sorry for CCP tho, that's a ton of money just thrown into the bin... AT least now the can redirect it into EVE.

I told them when they first started talking about buying out WW that it was an idea which would end badly.


EvE Online player should be happy though as, in theory, more dev time will be spent fixing the many, many issues that have cropped up with eve since this debacle began.

More dev time, I don't think so since they have fired all the dev team. But at least they don't have to pay for a whole team sitting on their hands all day. They may even contract some more devs for EVE.

 

[Micah Weil]

*clip*
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.

Ran Mage: The Ascension quite a bit back in the day. Gotta agree - a Mage video game would be INSANE in all of the ways. Kinda the same story with Wraith, considering how nutters THAT setting was...

As for Hunter...well, they did three, remember? Reckoning (Gamecube), Wayward (PS2) and Redeemer (XBox)

 

[infinity_turtles]

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.

CCP has had practically nothing to do with WoD or any whitewolf products beyond siphoning staff and money for the MMO until now. One of the Whitewolf guys had to start a second publishing company and kickstart practically, if not every, book they've released for awhile. They basically killed Whitewolf, and the best you can say is that they're letting Onyx Path Publishing use the IPs. But then, I have no idea what cut of that profit they might be getting, so that may very well just be business.

probably lack of audience for a WoD game.

it tends to be grimdark, which as a MMO would have some difficulty trasfering over from Pen and Paper. that's the only reason I can come up with for CCP to cancel a game nearly a decade in the making.

But I would think they would use some assets from that time to be used in Eve, if just the "walk outside spaceships" feature people constantly cry out for.

Probably has more to do with Dust 514's failure. They pulled a bunch of people off the WoD MMO to work on Dust, and then Dust failed costing them a lot of money. Probably can't afford anything beyond that Status Quo after a flop like that.

 

[Qvar]

Probably has more to do with Dust 514's failure. They pulled a bunch of people off the WoD MMO to work on Dust, and then Dust failed costing them a lot of money. Probably can't afford anything beyond that Status Quo after a flop like that.

Hate to see that the doomsayers were ultimately right. If we can't trust on hating the doomsayers, what can we trust in?!

 

[faefrost]

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.

CCP has had practically nothing to do with WoD or any whitewolf products beyond siphoning staff and money for the MMO until now. One of the Whitewolf guys had to start a second publishing company and kickstart practically, if not every, book they've released for awhile. They basically killed Whitewolf, and the best you can say is that they're letting Onyx Path Publishing use the IPs. But then, I have no idea what cut of that profit they might be getting, so that may very well just be business.

probably lack of audience for a WoD game.

it tends to be grimdark, which as a MMO would have some difficulty trasfering over from Pen and Paper. that's the only reason I can come up with for CCP to cancel a game nearly a decade in the making.

But I would think they would use some assets from that time to be used in Eve, if just the "walk outside spaceships" feature people constantly cry out for.

Probably has more to do with Dust 514's failure. They pulled a bunch of people off the WoD MMO to work on Dust, and then Dust failed costing them a lot of money. Probably can't afford anything beyond that Status Quo after a flop like that.

It probably came from a number of things. 10 years in development. Not enough completed even for a half assed release to attempt to recoup some losses. The Secret Worlds rather spectacular under performance calling into question themarket for such type games. Bleeding money from several orifices including Dust 514, plus Eve isn't getting any younger and has an extremely high baked i barrier of entry to new players.

 

[The Great JT]

And now, as many Vampire: The Masquerade jokes as I can come up with.

-Malkav must have been the project lead.
-The project violated the Masquerade and needed to be put down.
-WoD's MMO was committing diablerie on CCP's resources.
-Their Ventrue bankroll lost faith in the project.
-The Society of Leopold caught on and they had to lay low, cancelling the project to cover their tracks.
-The fanbase immediately after the announcement failed their Frenzy checks.
-They should've had more ghouls on the dev team.
-The devs decided to spend their money on the drugs the totally reputable Follower of Set was selling.
-When they heard they weren't playable, the Assamites promptly were hired by the Giovanni to eliminate the project.
-CCP accidentally put their QA lab in the hideout of a Nagaraja.
-The Tremere got wind that one of theirs was on the programming team. We all know what happened next.
-CCP called a Blood Hunt on the program.
-They were afraid of engaging in the Jyhad against World of Warcraft.

I wish I could come up with a Brujah joke...

 

[Brian Tams]

They put a bullet in the project's head before it turned into another DNF.
That would've been a disaster.

 

[Scars Unseen]

Neither surprised nor really disappointed. I never really thought a WoD MMO was a good idea in the first place. At least Onyx Path is doing interesting things on the tabletop side of things. The God-Machine Chronicle and Demon: The Descent are pretty awesome, even if I never get a chance to actually play them...

 

[Rebel_Raven]

Eh, while I am saddened at the news, they prolly wouldn't have included Kuei Jin as playable, so I prolly would've disliked the game based on that.

A single player game based on the world would be nice, though. I hope they make that. Besides, hell is other people anyhow.

 

[Jhonny Malkav]

And now, as many Vampire: The Masquerade jokes as I can come up with.

-Malkav must have been the project lead.
-The project violated the Masquerade and needed to be put down.
-WoD's MMO was committing diablerie on CCP's resources.
-Their Ventrue bankroll lost faith in the project.
-The Society of Leopold caught on and they had to lay low, cancelling the project to cover their tracks.
-The fanbase immediately after the announcement failed their Frenzy checks.
-They should've had more ghouls on the dev team.
-The devs decided to spend their money on the drugs the totally reputable Follower of Set was selling.
-When they heard they weren't playable, the Assamites promptly were hired by the Giovanni to eliminate the project.
-CCP accidentally put their QA lab in the hideout of a Nagaraja.
-The Tremere got wind that one of theirs was on the programming team. We all know what happened next.
-CCP called a Blood Hunt on the program.
-They were afraid of engaging in the Jyhad against World of Warcraft.

I wish I could come up with a Brujah joke...

Brujah smashed their teeth in after seeing what they've done.
Not in the mood for jokes really. I liked the art style, even if they still were working on it I very much liked the direction.
Sad sad news...
I think it has to do with game mechanics, that's what I couldn't get for long time. How can you put a deep plot into MMO? Who do you hunt if EVERYONE is a vampire? If you hunt mobs, how many of them you have to have to feed the entire district of bloodsuckers who will need blood constantly because they'll use their powers constantly? And how the hell do you maintain the Masquerade or at least immersion in your character if a bunch of annoying *....*s is constantly running around ruining everything all the time.
Some games have to be single-player only. And for some stupid reason we can't have that any more, no-no-no.

 

[VoidWanderer]

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?

What would be cool, and therefore will never happen, but have a Core WoD game (humans) with expansions which give a full and proper storyline which intersects with all the others expansions and core game. Done right it could set a new bar for RPGs.

And with how my mind works, I will probably puzzle out such a storyline, complete with characters...

 

[Strazdas]

good. that MMO just felt like "Yeah, who exactly is going to play that?".

Good.

Can we have FRIGGING WALK IN STATION now please ?!

(OT: lay-offs suck)

no. we should focus on spaceships instead. noone needs walking in stations. if you want to walk in grey coridors you can do that in any other mmo. keep eve about space.

haven't played it and haven't really heard anything since it's launch but it's one of the games I would play if I could ever justify getting a Ps4 right now.

was the cross play between Eve Online and Dust really bad or something, or did hype just die down and people stopped playing?

it could to do with the fact that they only delivered 1/8th of the envroments, claiming that PS3 cannot handle the other enviroments they designed, their boasted a lot of choices and setups while delivering very few and actually plenty of placeholder setups that they only NOW got around to replacing with what they actually wanted out of it. Add to that that as a 5 year Eve Online player i dont know a single instance where any sort of cooperation or interaction was made between the games. Dust514 just felt like a lot of promises that resulted in almost another quirky shooter, altrough at least they did manage to make the loadout principle work which i think is great (basically like modules for ships, weapons for your armor).