List of cancelled/closed MMOs?

[Slyfeind]

Man, there was a game called The Second Age or The Second Coming that was out around the time of UO/EQ. Top down sprites. It was an MMO without a server. (The business plan was to make the game available to ISPs themselves instead of running their own server farms.

Not sure what became of it, and nothing on google.

http://www.the4thcoming.com/

[Xerapis]

Charr: The Grimm Fate

What?

[Goreschach]

Goreschach: how far along exactly? Near-done like G&H or playable-Alpha?

It was in open beta, and was basically ready for release. Nobody even bothered to explain why it was shut down, although the rumor is it had to do with EA/Microsoft cockfighting over the IP. Everything was going awesome, then one month the press release was basically 'Game over, servers shutting down next month. GTFO'.

[Sunbury]

On a side note,  Turbine bought new hardware and moved all the Asheron's Call 1 world and character data from Washington State to Mass. a couple of weeks ago.  It was fairly trouble free, minor hiccups.

Appears AC1 is going to be around a while. I'm glad since I resubbed and just hit Level 100 (really slooowly since I've been playing on and off since 1999, although I've purchased the base game 4 times over the years and there are 275 levels now!)

[Ratman_tf]

Man, there was a game called The Second Age or The Second Coming that was out around the time of UO/EQ. Top down sprites. It was an MMO without a server. (The business plan was to make the game available to ISPs themselves instead of running their own server farms.

Not sure what became of it, and nothing on google.

http://www.the4thcoming.com/

My god, it's still alive.

[Mrbloodworth]

Reclamation. Sequel to underlight. Its was a fund project, and i was lucky enough to do some world building for them. How ever the project was canceled just after underlight went down.

A purely player driven game just doesn't work in modern times i guess.

http://www.reclamationgame.com/    RIP:07

[Modern Angel]

Don't forget the original Warhammer Online which was canceled. It had a couple years dev time and, in some ways, looked a bit more ambitious in a storytelling sense than WAR. Based more on the RPG than the TT game.

[Endie]

Of games that actually launched, is Seed a record for rapidity of closure?

[Oarix]

Don't forget the original Warhammer Online which was canceled. It had a couple years dev time and, in some ways, looked a bit more ambitious in a storytelling sense than WAR. Based more on the RPG than the TT game.

Beat me to it.

As a painter of said Warhammer fare, I was actually looking forward to this iteration of Warhammer (from Climax Studios) far more than Mythics.  Climax's Warhammer was grittier and darker.  Something Mythic's Warhammer Online is not, which is to say it's a graphics engine that looks exactly like World of Warcraft.

[Mrbloodworth]

Of games that actually launched, is Seed a record for rapidity of closure?

It was dam quick, but it really had little to do with the game its self. (i am sure more initial sales would have helped lol).

[Endie]

Don't forget the original Warhammer Online which was canceled. It had a couple years dev time and, in some ways, looked a bit more ambitious in a storytelling sense than WAR. Based more on the RPG than the TT game.

Beat me to it.

As a painter of said Warhammer fare, I was actually looking forward to this iteration of Warhammer (from Climax Studios) far more than Mythics.  Climax's Warhammer was grittier and darker.  Something Mythic's Warhammer Online is not, which is to say it's a graphics engine that looks exactly like World of Warcraft.

This is exactly my feeling.  The screenshots, particularly of the undercity-type areas, were atmospheric and the design was ambitiious.

[5150]

If you are including the first Star Trek online should you not also include the first Warhammer online?

[Venkman]

Good question. I suppose that makes sense; however, would we then need to include Sierra Online's Middle Earth Online? Thoughts?

@Mrbloodworth: Reclamation's on the list already, thanks though!

[Lantyssa]

Maybe a separate category for MMOs that don't make much past design and prototypes?

[UnSub]

Good question. I suppose that makes sense; however, would we then need to include Sierra Online's Middle Earth Online? Thoughts?

Yep, include it.

Especially if you can link in the story of MEO buying some other fantasy title, doing some reskinning, then possibly showing it off to Tolkien's estate as what they'd been working on.

[Grimwell]

I'm going to wager the answer is "No" due to the obvious nature of the list you have in place, but...

Is this list only for games launched at the North American market? English only? Etc.

Or are international entries welcome too? Not that I have a huge list of them, but they exist (just not in Engrish).

[Phred]

SOE or 989 had at least one MMOG they canceled after several years of development but I can't remember the name. It sounded like an attempt to put a graphic frontend on the old university Empire game. I believe it was Smedley's.

[Venkman]

I'm going to wager the answer is "No" due to the obvious nature of the list you have in place, but...

Is this list only for games launched at the North American market? English only? Etc.

Or are international entries welcome too? Not that I have a huge list of them, but they exist (just not in Engrish).

The list started as as particularly biased to the U.S. market. And it kinda still is because I lumped all of the Korean imports under that "weren't going to work here anyway" heading. I'm somewhat ambivalent about it though. And really, at this point, this is our list, it just happens to be in a topic I wrote

Personally, as much as the Asian market matters in the grand scheme of globalization, I can't help but shake the feeling that the type of games they enjoy over there are just not going to appeal over here. We'll import the IP and the Manga, but looking at todays kids and tweens in the U.S, I can't see them growing up into a world of whatever follows the fly-by-night MTX-supported MMOs. Not unless more of them go to console by default. I think the biggest impact for MMO gamers in the West is more resources shifting to make games for the East. And this doesn't even consider the India implication (yet another billion people who, along with being an actual Democracy, will be coming into their own in a few years).

That's my long-winded way of asking: does listing every title matter? I'm sure there's a few dozen I couldn't even pronounce much less would ever consider playing. Since this thread is largely only ever going to be read by gamers in the West anyway restrict it to the markets that matter to us?

Edit: Updated original list to include original Warhammer Online and Middle Earth Online.

[damijin]

If you have Air Warrior on there, you should also include Legends of Kesmai, created by the same folks.

It died with Air Warrior when Kesmai (the company) was purchased by EA and the Gamestorm service was shut down around 2001 I believe.

It looked like this:



Was available on Gamestorm and AOL.

[Venkman]

Good one. Thanks.

[Ubvman]

SOE or 989 had at least one MMOG they canceled after several years of development but I can't remember the name. It sounded like an attempt to put a graphic frontend on the old university Empire game. I believe it was Smedley's.

The game was called Sovereign.

It was supposed to be a persistent world RTS. You set up stuff, and the server AI would run the place while you logged off. Early screenshots had aircraft carriers and shit like that, and Smedley was madly hyping the game soon after EQ1 was launched as part of Verant's madzor plans to take over the online world in 1999.

Here is what I found via google:
Sony Online Entertainment and Verant Interactive Announce New Massively Multiplayer Strategy Game, Sovereign

Here is what happened soon after in 2000:
http://www.fatbabies.com/rumors_may-june00.html

For all the craziness going on at its headquarters, Verant was calm at the show.  But their Sovereign MMP RTS game looked like shit.  Shown on 2 game stations, it looked to have very little gameplay (just setting up battles and watching the results), and the graphics were incredibly poor (small models, bland colors, and simple world geometry).  Verant claimed Sovereign would be released this Winter, but it is clear they are smoking some crack, as it will be lucky to make Christmas of NEXT year.

Cancelled quietly around 2001.

[Phred]

The game was called Sovereign.

It was supposed to be a persistent world RTS. You set up stuff, and the server AI would run the place while you logged off. Early screenshots had aircraft carriers and shit like that, and Smedley was madly hyping the game soon after EQ1 was launched as part of Verant's madzor plans to take over the online world in 1999.

That's the one. It sounded so much like an attempt to copy multiplayer empire like they did the diku mud and bring it to the  world.

[UnSub]

Just found one: Ballerium. It was an MMORTS that shut down in July 2008. The project had lurched from publisher to publisher, I think it had some players paying to play directly, but if it was ever officially launched it was never particularly well marketed / announced. From my beta test of it, it had a lot of potential but there was little given to new players on how to play or what to do when you started.

[Bokonon]

Lost Continents. Had a fan site, and some early alpha screenshots/video, and then their parent company went belly up.

[UnSub]

Lost Continents. Had a fan site, and some early alpha screenshots/video, and then their parent company went belly up.

I remember that one. The original screenshots were isometric or overhead or something like that, then they went to 3D graphics.

[Venkman]

Added Ballerium and Sovereign. I think Lost Continents is too far into the land of pipe dream though. Let me know if you disagree.

[Comstar]

Sony(?) : 10*6 (?): a MMRTS (I think you controlled 10 different tanks and were supposed to team up with other people, sort of like a MMOG Global Conflict). The 10*6 refered the the alleged 1,000,000 players it could support, though I think it never got over a few 1000. Easy MMOG, cancelled around 2000(?)

[Cheddar]

The original Neverwinter Nights.  My first MMO 

[Rasix]

I feel like I’m missing baseball game of some form or another.

http://www.playrealbaseball.com/

The service for Cal Ripken's Real Baseball is currently halted until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience.

This from searching here was Ultimate Baseball Onine just reskinned to add Cal Ripken's name.

[Bokonon]

Added Ballerium and Sovereign. I think Lost Continents is too far into the land of pipe dream though. Let me know if you disagree.

Well, hard to say. It certainly didn't get far. It was a legit funded development project, by all accounts, even if it was only funded for about a year.

[Venkman]

Added Tabula Rasa.

[Draegan]

You can add The Shadow of Yserbius from Sierra.  Shut down in '96.  Had cool Bard's Tale graphics and was playable on a 2400 baud modem 

[tolakram]

You can add The Shadow of Yserbius from Sierra.  Shut down in '96.  Had cool Bard's Tale graphics and was playable on a 2400 baud modem 

That was the name of that game, thanks.   I played that and Red Baron on Sierra Online (or whatever it was called).

[Signe]

I bet Draegan hardly ever played Yserbius.  I bet he hung out in LarryLand all the time!  You perv, you!   

[Ubvman]

Add this to MMOGs that was killed at development:

Imperator

Roman empire in space - science fiction alternate future theme, what if the Roman Empire never fell. Mythic Entertainment. Development was killed in July 2005 when Mythic managed to get the Warhammer Online license.

Links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperator_Online
http://www.imperatoronline.com/pressrelease/
http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Imperator-Online