Zenimax (Bethesda's parent) receives cash infusion. MMOGs to follow?

[Hutch]

(original quote from a locked thread in a galaxy far, far away)

Budgets. Budgets that don't support a MMOG. Budgets that won't for a long time until a big company (EA, UBISoft, Take Two, ZeniMax, SCEA/J/E) says they've got a blank checkbook to make this game.

Hmmmmm

I found this in the Warcry newsfeed. The article is on Gamasutra. Zenimax received 300 million USD "to fund future growth, ramp up publishing and development, facilitate acquisitions, and finance MMOGs."

The Aperture Enrichment Center wants to remind you to speculate in an environment of extreme pessimism.

[schild]

Didn't they buy the Fallout MMOG or did what's it called keep that part of the license?

Also, Elder Scrolls MMO on consoles in 2010-2012, you heard it here first.

It will still be ugly as fuck.

[Hutch]

Well, if they were going to take that $300M (or a high percentage of it, anyway) and simultaneously build an MMOG and an MMOG toolkit with it, they might have something. A game to finance future development, and a toolkit to build it with.

That's a pretty big if, though. I reckon they'll end up diverting the largest share of that pie into "facilitate acquisitions".

[Phred]

Didn't they buy the Fallout MMOG or did what's it called keep that part of the license?

Also, Elder Scrolls MMO on consoles in 2010-2012, you heard it here first.

It will still be ugly as fuck.

Correction to original post. Bethesda bought all rights to Fallout including the right to make a MMOG, but the deal is that  Interplay gets to keep those for another year or so and Bethesda has the right to approve the quality of any Fallout MMO before it goes to market. No one expects Interplay to actually dig up enough money to actually finance it though so what's a good lead time to start building up cash?

[Ragnoros]

The way I understand it Bethesda now owns the fallout IP period. However Interplay is allowed (likely under past agreements) to make a Fallout MMOG IF they start within the next two years (more like one and a half now) AND finish in six. However if they fail to do so (the way I understood it) Bethesda is free to make their own and/or license it to someone else or whatever the fuck they like.

Heres the post from No Mutants Allowed

Also Gamespot's news item explains it well.

[Yegolev]

Also, Elder Scrolls MMO on consoles in 2010-2012, you heard it here first.

It will still be ugly as fuck.

If TES MOG ends up being only ugly as fuck, we're getting off easy.  How about: nothing like any TES game, boring and buggy?

[Arrrgh]

This is good news. Eventually it will be like the infinite number of monkeys on typewriters and we'll have an infinite number of devs cranking out MMOs. I suspect this is the only way I'll ever see a fun new MMO.

[CharlieMopps]

The only way I see a "Fun new MMO" being made is if some hardcore mmo junky wins the powerball and starts his own company just for fun and never thinks about profit.

Everyone buy lottery tickets and mail them to me... quick!

[Salamok]

The only way I see a "Fun new MMO" being made is if some hardcore mmo junky wins the powerball and starts his own company just for fun and never thinks about profit.

Already in the works.

Think about a few years down the road. The game devs that ended up with a money hat and want to continue working in a field they are passionate about.  Everyone seems to be mourning the death of the indy mmog but I think it will experience a glorious rebirth sometime in the next 5 years. 

[Furiously]

The only way I see a "Fun new MMO" being made is if some hardcore mmo junky wins the powerball and starts his own company just for fun and never thinks about profit.

Already in the works.

Think about a few years down the road. The game devs that ended up with a money hat and want to continue working in a field they are passionate about.  Everyone seems to be mourning the death of the indy mmog but I think it will experience a glorious rebirth sometime in the next 5 years. 

You mean people like Richard Garriot and Brad McQuaid?

[UnSub]

The only way I see a "Fun new MMO" being made is if some hardcore mmo junky wins the powerball and starts his own company just for fun and never thinks about profit.

Everyone buy lottery tickets and mail them to me... quick!

You could buy Darkfall and finally release the perfect MMO.

[CharlieMopps]

You could buy Darkfall and finally release the perfect MMO.

uh... no... More like I'd use Torque to build it, so it could be ported anywhere... then I'd develop content in 2 directions. Fantasy and Sci-fi. I'd make the client open source, but the servers... oh the servers would be my money hat. You can change the mmo all you want... have whatever rules you want... But all your players gots to pay me $15.99/month. Maybe we'd throw in bonuses to the server admins that attracted the most accounts. There would be a minimal fee to start a server... just enough to pay for the hard disk space and backups. The clients subscription fees would pay for bandwidth... and my ferrari.

[Salamok]

The only way I see a "Fun new MMO" being made is if some hardcore mmo junky wins the powerball and starts his own company just for fun and never thinks about profit.

Already in the works.

Think about a few years down the road. The game devs that ended up with a money hat and want to continue working in a field they are passionate about.  Everyone seems to be mourning the death of the indy mmog but I think it will experience a glorious rebirth sometime in the next 5 years. 

You mean people like Richard Garriot and Brad McQuaid?

sort of, you can't make an omelette without breaking some eggs.  I was thinking more along the lines of flagship studios.  You could even say that Raph/meatplace is a product of this as well. 

[rk47]

I like where this one's going 


not. 

[HaemishM]

Is that armor made of LEAVES?

[stu]

Those sure look like leaves...

[CharlieMopps]

No, thats a screenshot of Morrowind, and the green stuff is the glass armor. I'm assuming this is some sort of online co-op mod of the game.

[Murgos]

No, thats a screenshot of Morrowind, and the green stuff is the glass armor. I'm assuming this is some sort of online co-op mod of the game.

That's quite an assumption.   I assumed it was a photshop.

[Murgos]

Also, Elder Scrolls MMO on consoles in 2010-2012, you heard it here first.

"ZeniMax Buys 'Elder Scrolls Online' Domain"

[Miasma]

Eeep, I love the elder scrolls but they aren't going to be able to make a good MMO.  I can't imagine the number of bugs either .

[schild]

Also, Elder Scrolls MMO on consoles in 2010-2012, you heard it here first.

"ZeniMax Buys 'Elder Scrolls Online' Domain"

>_< was hoping I was wrong.

[CharlieMopps]

Makes sense to me... Since Daggerfall they have been producing games filled with boring computer generated quests. How people can stand to play the same quest over and over is beyond me... Usually even the art looks identical... each temple looks the same... each cave the same... etc...

But it would all lend itself to an MMO well. Oblivion was so much like an mmo already, all it needs is a server.

[raydeen]

If they make the leveling mechanic similar to what they initiated in Daggerfall/Morrowind/Oblivion, I will come. (in more ways than one probably). Let me level by doing what my class demands, not by whacking foozles. I know I'm going to get flamed for that because of a comment I made in the FFXI thread about only wanting to whack foozles, but in the context of the Elder Scrolls games, I would glady deal with leveling based on performing my major and minor skills. I loved that in Daggerfall. Forced me to roleplay that character as God intended. I'm guessing it's a similar concept to UO's levelilng, but not positive about that. I couldn't get into the UO love.

But holy hell yes, bring on TES:Online. But only if it works the way I want and has daedra boobies. 

MIght even get my wife to play. Arena was her favorite game back in the day.

[rk47]

raydeen, it's called ultima online. Can you imagine all those crazy max-monkeys running against the walls and bunny hopping all the place just level up their char? No. Just no >_<

[Yegolev]

What rk47 said.  Be careful what you wish for, and people who don't know history, and whatnot.

[raydeen]

raydeen, it's called ultima online. Can you imagine all those crazy max-monkeys running against the walls and bunny hopping all the place just level up their char? No. Just no >_<

Yeah, I see where you're coming from. Is it any worse than what we have right now though? It's just a different kind of grind. Although I can see where it would be criminally easy to level some classes and hard as fuck for others. I ran into that with Daggerfall. Some classes couldn't level to save their lives, others would get you levels all day. In the end, it would take too much thought to implement and balance and wouldn't be worth the time and money for the company. It's sad. One possible way of making it work would be for a check to be in place that the action being taken actually was warranted. Say I'm firing off flame bolts at a monster. If one lands, I get exp or skill increase. If I'm just firing off into mid-air (which I used to do in DF), I should get nothing if the bolt fizzles out without making contact with a mob.

I should just pack in the whole MMOG deal and buy an old Pentium for $50 and reload DF and Arena. 

[Yegolev]

You can run those in DOSBox.

History can teach us about disparate level gains.  Nevermind the class-balance flag that people trot around for a minute and let's remember Horizons.  I can't remember exactly which of the hundred classes was the Easy Mode one, but once the first guy hit level cap, the combat rework began.  Things just went downhill from there.

[MrHat]

lol elderscrollsonline.com

 Registrant:
        ZeniMax Media Inc
        IT Department
        1370 Piccard Drive
        Suite 120
        Rockville, MD 20850
        US
         
        +1.3019632000  Fax: +1.3019632000

    Domain Name: ELDERSCROLLSONLINE.COM
    Registrar of Record: Corporate Domains, Inc.

[schild]

Fail (also, that's a few days old).

Of course, it will be a console MMOG.

2 Million Users + within the first few months. I'm calling it.

[Rendakor]

No way its console exclusive, unless M$ gives them moneyhats for exclusivity, which would put it on 360 and "Games for Windows(tm)". Though honestly I dont see them keeping it off the PS3...

[Simond]

It'll be on all three (with the PC version being gimped to fit), and it'll be moneyhats all around.

Hell, you could take Oblivion, rip out the 'main' storyline, add multiplayer and charge $10/m for it right now and you'd still end up with half a million subs.

[schild]

No way its console exclusive, unless M$ gives them moneyhats for exclusivity, which would put it on 360 and "Games for Windows(tm)". Though honestly I dont see them keeping it off the PS3...

WHY HELLO, I NEVER SAID EXCLUSIVE.

Of course there will be a PC version.

I'm just saying it'll be on consoles.

[Rendakor]

Im sorry, but "console MMOG" implies "not on PC."

[schild]

Im sorry, but "console MMOG" implies "not on PC."

Oblivion was a console RPG that was on the PC.

[Rendakor]

TES has always been a PC RPG series. The fact that the two most recent iterations have also been released on consoles does not change that fact.