MMO's That Should'a Made it Big

A little revisionist history, these are the games that should have been massive successes.

Marvel Universe Online

What it was:

Pretty self explanatory this one, it was um... the Marvel Universe... Online. In development at Cryptic Studios, developers of City of Heroes/Villains and Star Trek Online, scheduled for Microsoft's Xbox 360 platform and Windows Vista. MUO was destined to follow in Final Fantasy XI's lead on the console MMO frontier.

Why it should'a been big:

Super heroes have been pretty massive over the past decade. Think back to the breakout success of Bryan Singer's X-Men films, Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, The Dark Knight, Iron Man, the list goes on and shows no signs of stopping. SOE have managed to get their licensed super hero MMO together in the form of DC Universe Online, MUO should have followed.

Why it wasn't:

Fact is that we'll pobably never know for sure what happened to Marvel Universe Online as it was quietly canceled in February 2008.

What we do know is that it left Cryptic open to pursuing development on Star Trek Online, where players would go boldly where no one has before, stock up on sto gold, customise ships, and visit Memory Alpha ad nauseum. It's up to you to decide whether it was for the best or not, but personally I get the feeling that MUO under Cryptic might have been a little too much like a re-skinned City of Heroes/Villains.

What might'a helped:

A different developer, perhaps? Not that Cryptic is a bad developer by any stretch (Star Trek Online is a cracking game), but perhaps a developer with more clout, like Bioware would have been more suited to the project. Oh, and it would have been nice if Microsoft hadn't pulled the rug out from under them. Marvel Universe Online would go on to become Champions Online.

Star Wars Galaxies

What it was:

Following the release of EverQuest, Sony Online Entertainment was the top dog in the massively multiplayer online game space. Star Wars Galaxies was an ambitious, promising looking game that aimed to recreate the world of Star Wars in exacting detail.

Why it should'a been big:

"It's Star Wars." should have been enough of an answer, but then so should the news that it was being developed by the folks who made the insanely popular EverQuest.

A vast galaxy to discover spanning multiple worlds, gorgeous graphics, the promise of space flight in subsequent expansions, and the fact that around the time of its release, Star Wars was a franchise experiencing something of a renaissance thanks to the impending release of a brand new trilogy of films. To all involved, SWG was pretty much wow gold in the bank, to use an MMO-centric term.

Why it wasn't:

Star Wars Galaxies should be a lesson to all gamers, developers and publishers; beware the hype. If SWG was in fact wow gold in the bank, well... the bank went under and the money went with it. The game didn't quite pull in the subscriber numbers that SOE were hoping for (this is Star Wars, after all), and so they went in and changed the game, in the process pulling the rug out from under the subscribers they already had. As you can imagine, this did not end well.

What might'a helped:

For starters, not trying to fix something that wasn't broken. In many ways the failure of SWG to capture the audience that was expected of it was the first step down a long road of disappointments for the once mighty SOE, including Everquest II, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, and many more entries that met with a tepid reception.

In truth, SOE would never really recover until the release of 2009's free-to-play, family friendly MMO, Free Realms. Yup, it took nearly five years, and a free-to-play for SOE to gain back some cache among gamers.

Planetside

What it was:

When it was released, a science fiction first person shooter on the kind of scale promised by Sony Online Entertainment's Planetside was not just revolutionary, many believed it couldn't be done.

Why it should'a been big:

Unlike many failed or troubled MMO's just about everyone who played the Planetside beta in the early days agreed on one thing; that despite it obvious technical issues, the game was an absolute blast, and unlike any game experience they'd ever known.

Why it wasnt:

Put simply... it didn't take. Yes, Planetside was incredibly fun, yes, it was unlike everything else in the marketplace, but from a pure game design standpoint, Planetside wasn't built to last. In an MMO, persistence is important, growth is important. This, frankly, just didn't exist in Planetside, and as a result, when you died, that was it for your character, you started over again from scratch. Leveling, ranking, XP, wow gold to buy items, none of that really existed. In a sense, Planetside was too far ahead of its time.

What might'a helped:

We know that SOE is working on a sequel, and perhaps taking the core experience from Planetside 2, and melding it with what we've learned in terms of persistence from recent online shooters like Call of Duty: Mordern Warfare and Battlefield 2: Bad Company, the sequel will deliver what the original promised.

Age of Conan:

What it was:

Sex, violence, beautiful graphics, a grim, detailed world unlike any other MMO on the market, and based on the work of a popular low fantasy writer, Age of Conan was the MMO you'd put aoc gold on going head to head with World of Warcraft.

Why it should'a been big:

In many ways AoC promised to take what was wrong with the now stale MMO formula, low spec graphics, no voice acting, detached combat, and turn everything upside down with a graphical and aural tour de force married with exciting, action oriented combat. Previews and early looks showed a game with a massive amount of promise and an entirely unique feel and atmosphere.

Why it wasn't:

Bugs and bad management. That's pretty much it. When AoC launched, it was nigh unplayable. A number of nasty memory leaks meant that even those who were able to get somewhat decent framerates would eventually get stopped by a crash to desktop. Age of Conan also suffered from not really having much content outside of the mid-level areas, a new MMO having sparse end-game content is understandable, but a dearth of mid-level content? That's just wrong.

What might'a helped:

It's a sad case, because AoC is still going strong, and outside World of Warcraft, it's probably the most polished and accomplished MMO you can play... it just had a really had start. It's since found its feet, but it will never be what it could, and should have been.